Cooking with Crosby Roamann: Linguine with White Clam Sauce

 

Another staple growing up in NY -- linguine with white clam sauce. This was perhaps my family's most ordered pasta dish at traditional Italian American restaurants in the 70s and 80s -- places like Patsy's, Don Pepe's. I developed the basic recipe for this in college, and it is cheap and simple -- a box of linguine, decent olive oil, some butter, half a yellow onion (I prefer shallots now cause I'm fancy pants) and lots and lots of garlic, sliced very thin (or roast whole cloves in olive oil first and use them) a bunch of fresh parsley, and frozen clams. You can get away with just these ingredients in this dish, but if you have a little cheap white wine, it fills out the sauce most succulently. Recently I've taken to garnishing this dish with roughly chopped toasted pistachios for a little crunch.

Linguine with White Clam Sauce

• 1 cup olive oil, divided
• 1 stick butter, cut into tablespoon sizes
• 2 shallots thinly sliced (2mm-3mm)
• 5-6 garlic cloves rough chopped
• ½ tspn garlic powder
• ½ tspn onion powder
• 1 Tbspn kosher salt
• ¼ tspn red pepper flakes
• 3-4 anchovies in olive oil
• 1 cup good and hearty white wine
• 1 pound frozen raw clams in juice or fresh little neck clams or about 3 small cans (6.5 ounces each) of Bar Harbor Chopped Clams—although any good clam will do
• 1 bunch, about 1.5 cups fresh parsley finely chopped (divided)
• ½ tspn fresh cracked black pepper
• 1 Tbspn Maldon salt

Fancy garnish options:

• ¼ cup roasted salted pistachios rough chopped; or
• ¼ cup bread crumbs with seasoning; or Gremolata (see recipe)

Directions

• Combine half cup of olive oil, 2 tablespoons of butter, the shallots and season them with kosher salt and garlic and onion powder and red pepper flakes -- set over medium heat to sweat, 5 minutes
• Add the garlic and sauté them another 2 minutes.
• Make a hot spot in the center of the pot and add the anchovies – allow them to liquify over the next 2 minutes, and then incorporate them to the sauce.
• Add the wine, bring to a boil, then reduce the flame to low and cook off the alcohol -- 7 minutes more.
• Add the clams and clam juice, crack some black pepper over it, and cover to allow them to simmer and steam for about 7 minutes.
• Add half the parsley and stir to combine. At this point the clam sauce is basically done. You may want to adjust the consistency of the sauce with more olive oil, more butter, some pasta cooking water, whatever!
• Meanwhile, boil a pot of salted water and cook the pasta -- about 8 minutes.
• At the conclusion of the pasta, add a cup of boiling pasta water to the sauce.
• Drain the pasta, and add half the butter to the bottom of the pan. Return the pasta to the pan, and add the other half of the butter on top of the pasta. Using tongs, coat the pasta in butter.
• Add the sauce to the pasta, turning to coat it in clams, and bring it back to a boil quickly and briefly, then remove from heat.
• Salt the pasta with Maldon sea salt, garnish with fresh chopped parsley, a thin layer of seasoned breadcrumbs or Gremolata, or toasted pistachios, or all three!