White Clam Sauce

This is taken, almost verbatim, from Marcella Hazan’s, "The Essentials of Classical Italian Cooking". I consider it to be one of the books of the "cooking bible". Its definite, yet simplistic approach yields wonderful results every time. I highly recommend it to all cooks. This is probably the ultimate clam pasta recipe in my opinion; light on the sauce, without forgoing the big flavor.

Obviously using fresh clams in this recipe is the best way to go. But in a pinch, at the end of a bad day, canned clams work just fine. Is there a difference? Yes! Should you disregard it because you don’t have fresh clams? No! Just use only half of the clam juice and add 3 T water to it.<

2 # Manila clams (substitute 2 6-1/2 oz. cans chopped clams,

thoroughly drained, half the liquid reserved; see above)

3 T extra virgin olive oil

2 lg. garlic cloves, sliced paper thin

1 1/2 T parsley, finely chopped

2 t fresh chile, finely chopped

1 fresh roma tomato; halved cross-wise, squeezed of juice

and seeds (skin left on)

1/2 c dry white wine (plus 1/4 c more if using fresh clams)

3/4 # dry pasta

6-8 fresh basil leaves, torn into pieces

If using fresh clams, scrub well and rinse them several times. Put them into a heavy pot over med-high heat with the extra 1/4 c white wine. Stir frequently and watch for clams to open. Pull them out and put into another bowl, as they are ready. Cover bowl and set aside. Carefully drain liquid out of the pot into a bowl, leaving grit behind, and set bowl aside. (If you want to serve the clams out of the shell, detach from shell, and swish each clam in the reserved liquid if desired) If using canned clams, see above.

Start a pot of salted water for the pasta so it gets started. Now choose a pan large enough to accommodate all the ingredients and put on a med-high burner. Put in the olive oil and garlic, stir a few seconds, and add the parsley and chile. Stir once or twice and add the tomato. Cook for 2 more minutes, stirring from time to time. Add the wine, simmer another minute to reduce and turn off the heat.

Cook the pasta until not quite done. It should still have a tiny white center to it (bite it and look, you’ll see what I mean). Pull pot from burner and move the garlic/tomato onto the hot burner. Reheat pan and add the reserved juice and cook, tossing the pasta until most of the juice is absorbed. Turn the heat off, add the clams and torn basil leaves. Toss in the pan a couple of times and serve at once.