Whenever I go home to visit my parents, there is one dish that I ALWAYS ask for: Linguine with Clam Sauce. Now, this isn't the typical creamy, heavy restaurant style clam sauce. This is a light, amazingly flavorful, vacation-to-the-Cape-for-your-mouth, type of sauce. I might go as far as to say that if I were stuck on an island for the rest of my life, I would choose this dish to have as my only meal. Really.... it is that good.
The following is my mom's recipe for Linguine with Clam Sauce.... Enjoy :) **Some of the times listed of how long to cook various parts of the recipe are a bit vague.... basically, just follow your instincts. If you taste the recipe at a certain spot and you think it needs a bit longer on the stove, or maybe a little more salt, or whatever, go for it!! You know what you like... make changes based on your tastes.
Ingredients
1 Medium Shallot
2 cloves of garlic, sliced VERY thin
1 cup parsley, divided
1 pinch, red pepper flakes
1 medium tomato
1/2 cup white wine
1/4 cup freshly grated parmigiano reggiano
4 Fresh basil leaves
-Mince Shallot, set aside
-Slice garlic cloves, set aside
-Slice tomato into quarters, squeeze out juice and seeds and chop into a small dice, set aside
-Pour oil into a medium saucepan and saute shallots for a few minutes over medium high heat
-Add garlic to the pan, stirring constantly for a few seconds. Add the red pepper flakes and saute 1 minute more.
-Add HALF of the parsley and all of the tomatoes and saute for several minutes until the tomatoes have wilted a bit.
-Add the wine and let the mixture reduce for about 10 minutes
-Add the bottle of
clam juice
and the juice from the 3 cans of clams (reserve the clams for later) and cook for approximately 5 minutes over medium or medium-low heat.
-Add the reserved
clams
and slowly simmer the sauce for 10 minutes
-Add the grated parmigiano and simmer SLOWLY for approximately 40 minutes or until sauce has reduced and looks just delicious
-At this point you can turn off the sauce and let it set for a while (if you have the time to do this, if not you can skip this step.)
-In a separate pot, boil spaghetti until al dente. drain and return to original pot.
-Before serving, stir in the remaining 1/2 cup chopped parsley
- Place a serving of pasta on each plate and top with as much sauce as you like**
-Sprinkle the
chiffonade of basil and additional parmigiano on each individual plate to finish (follow the link to see how to chiffonade.)
**Generally I am a firm believer of adding the prepared pasta to the sauce pot, and cooking the pasta along with the sauce for a minute before serving. I find that this process helps the sauce bind to the pasta better than if I just ladled the sauce over the pasta on the plate... however, for whatever reason, my mom has always prepared this recipe differently. I would guess, that adding the cooked pasta to the sauce wouldn't hurt, I just have never done it and therefore cannot recommend it.
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