Spaghetti With Clams
- Total Time
- 15 minutes
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- Salt
- 8 to 12littleneck or other small clams in the shell, scrubbed
- ¼pound spaghetti
- 2tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- ½ to 1clove garlic, minced
- ½dried red chili pepper or ¼ teaspoon hot red pepper flakes
- ⅓cup Noilly Prat or other vermouth or white wine
- 1 to 2tablespoons chopped fresh Italian parsley
Nutritional analysis per serving (1 servings)
825 calories; 30 grams fat; 4 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 20 grams monounsaturated fat; 4 grams polyunsaturated fat; 92 grams carbohydrates; 4 grams dietary fiber; 4 grams sugars; 31 grams protein; 782 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
- Step 1
Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Meanwhile, soak clams in cold water.
- Step 2
Add spaghetti to boiling water, and cook until slightly underdone; pasta will finish cooking in sauce. Meanwhile, place a large saucepan over medium-low heat, and add olive oil, garlic and chili pepper. Sauté gently, reducing heat if necessary so garlic does not brown.
- Step 3
Add vermouth and clams, and cover. Clams should open in about 2 minutes. (If pasta is ready first, drain it and toss with a small amount of olive oil.) Add hot drained pasta, cover, and shake pot gently. Allow to simmer for another 1 or 2 minutes until it is done to taste.
- Step 4
Discard any clams that have not opened. Add half the parsley, and shake pan to distribute evenly. Transfer to a plate or bowl, and sprinkle with remaining parsley.
Private Notes
Comments
When I haven't the time, inclination or supply of fresh clams, a "cheater" version is to use a couple of cans of chopped (not minced) clams from the pantry. Not quite as pretty a presentation, but the taste is there. And a couple of cloves of garlic is a plus.
I quadrupled the recipe (to make 1 pound of pasta), including the vermouth, which means 1 1/3 cups vermouth. That was a mistake! (Well, not a disaster, but the vermouth flavor was too strong.) Apparently that quantity goes over the amount that can possibly cook down. I note that a Mark Bittman recipe (in How to Cook Everything) uses 1/2 cup wine for a pound of pasta, so that would be my recommendation.
This fabulous recipe (which I prefer to Marcella Hazan's published in the Times around 2002) needs the flavorful aromatics found in Noilly Prat vermouth. I used another brand of vermouth when I made the dish last and it did not work as well.
Cooked it many times. With white wine, a rounded, sweet and pleasant taste. With Noilly Prat, slight bitter note at first but then irresistible taste of sophisticated palette.
At the end of step 3 add in a knob of butter and a shaving of Parmesan cheese Put both vermouth and white wine in
When using canned chopped clams, drain the clam juice into the pan after sautéing the garlic in EVOO and simmer a bit. Add chopped clams at the last few minutes with the parsley since canned clams toughen when cooked for more than a few minutes.