Linguine with Clams

A typical summer Sunday during the mid 1950s to the mid-1960s went  something like this; early mass, rush home and change into our “swimwear“, pack the kids, coolers, and cooking equipment in the car, and head to our town beach, "Crab Meadow", on the north shore of Long Island.

When we arrived at the beach, usually 9 AM at the latest, a primo spot was already secured by a member of our advanced task force. At least three or four picnic tables, two fire pits and numerous blankets had been spread around on the sand to mark our territory. The “men folk“ would be unloading heavy steel coolers (that’s all they had then – no plastic or Styrofoam), starting fires that would facilitate both breakfast and lunch. Meanwhile, the “women folk“ would be organizing their beach kitchens, making ready for the breakfast rush!

A steel tub containing several large blocks of ice, would be carried out of one of the cars, placed in a shady spot in the picnic pavilion, and loaded up with soft drinks, watermelon, and perhaps a beer or two. By the way, seedless watermelons did not exist then. There was no better place to spit seeds than at the beach! Most importantly my father would consult the high/low tide table, to determine what time we would begin our “clam digging and muscle picking“ extravaganza.

Most of the town beaches on the Long Island Sound during the 50s and 60s were great to get delicious clams and mussels. I don’t know that I would eat them now, but back then the water was clean and they were great! With a work crew of one dozen cousins and at least four uncles to supervise us, we would fill up 2 to 3 bushel baskets of these mollusks. After covering our harvest with ice and burlap drenched with sea water, they would be kept in a cool spot until we left for our traditional Sunday evening dinner at Grandmas and Grandpas house.

My grandmother would always feign a weak protest saying, "I'm not cooking all of that stuff!" Within moments there would be an assembly line of “sous chefs“, scrubbing and cleaning clams and mussels. We would be making them ready for large pots of olive oil, garlic, some with hot pepper, plenty of flat leaf parsley and other assorted goodies to get soaked up with crusty Italian bread and plenty of Pop’s homemade wine. We ate like kings… Surrounded by family… I thought everybody spent Sunday evenings like that…

What I would give to relive one of those Sundays again!

Ingredients

3 to 4 dozen little neck clams or medium sized cherrystone clams

One cup of extra-virgin olive oil

Three cloves fresh peeled garlic smashed

One 8 oz. bottle of clam broth

One 6 1/2 oz. can of chopped clams

1/2 cup of dry white wine (Pinot Grigio, Sauvignon Blanc)

One can 28 oz San Marzano tomatoes, drained and hand crushed. (For a red clam sauce only)

1/2 teaspoon of crushed red pepper (optional)

1 pound linguine

Directions

Soak the clams in a large bowl of cold water for about 15 minutes. Rinse under cold water and scrub with a vegetable brush or a plastic scouring pad. Put half the clams in a large pot with a half cup of water, cover the pot, and turn up to high heat. When the water boils, lower to simmer checking to see when the shells have opened. Remove the clams from the pot and place in a large bowl to let them cool. Once cool, remove the clams from the shells and mince the clams. Set the minced clams aside and discard the empty shells. Reserve one cup of the clam broth from the empty pot. 

In a large sauce pan sauté the garlic cloves in the olive oil until they are lightly browned. Carefully place the remaining unopened clams, the bottle of clam juice, the cup of reserved clam broth, the red pepper and the white wine in the sauté pan. If you are making red clam sauce, place the hand crush tomatoes in the sauté pan at this time. Set the pan to medium high heat and cover. Stir the clams in the sauce frequently checking to see when the clams have opened. Once the clams have opened remove the pan from the heat.

At the same time you are cooking the sauce, in a large deep pasta pot, with 4 to 5 quarts of rapidly boiling salted water, stir in the linguine and cook it to al dente. Drain the linguine and return it to the empty pot. Place the linguine pot on medium high heat. Carefully transfer the clams and sauce from the sauté pan into the linguine pot. Add the fresh parsley tossing with large wooden spoons until the pasta is well coated.

Feeds six, or 3 to 4 people in my family.

*Note: If you want to comfortably serve 6-8, add an additional pound of pasta. There will be enough sauce for the extra pasta. Before serving, drizzle some EVOO on the individual plates of pasta. 

Buona Fortuna