• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

A cook named Rebecca

  • Home
  • Favorite Cookbooks
  • Recipes
  • Travel
You are here: Home / Archives for littleneck clams

littleneck clams

Best Pasta and Clams

September 5, 2019 by Becky Spoon

Best Pasta and ClamsJump to Recipe
Best Pasta and Clams
Best Pasta and Clams

This is the Best Pasta and Clams! It really is! This dish is loaded with garlic, lemon, anchovy to name a few, and the dish is finished with buttery breadcrumbs. The buttery breadcrumbs thicken the sauce and brings the dish together.

Best Pasta and clams
Best Pasta and Clams

Best Pasta and Clams

Jump to Recipe
Best Pasta and Clams
Best Pasta and Clams

I always check out the seafood department to see what is fresh that day. While shopping at my favorite HEB the other day, they had these fresh calms and I could not resist. Pasta and Clams is one of Allen’s favorite dishes and one of his most requested. These are Littleneck Clams. Here’s a link that describes the difference in clams: https://www.thekitchn.com/whats-the-difference-little-ne-61333.

If you like this recipe, try my recipe for delicious mussels, another favorite: https://the2spoons.com/mussels-with-tomatoes-garlic-lemons/.

Best Pasta and Clams

Here’s the recipe! Hope you enjoy!

Best Linguine with Clams

Print Recipe
Course Appetizer, dinner, Lunch, Main Course
Cuisine American, Italian

Ingredients
  

  • 2 tbsp. kosher salt for the pasta water, plus more for seasoning
  • 12 garlic cloves, divided
  • 4 oz sourdough or country-style bread, crusts removed, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
  • 2 tbsp plus 1/4 cup olive oil, plus more for serving
  • 2 tsp finely grated lemon zest
  • 2 oil-packed anchovy filets (optional)
  • 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes, plus more for serving
  • 1/3 cup dry white wine
  • 2 lbs littleneck clams (about 24) or cockles (about 32) scrubbed
  • 12 oz linguine or spaghetti
  • 1/2 cup finely chopped parsley
  • 2 tbsp unsalted butter

Instructions
 

  • Bring 2 Tbsp. salt and 10 cups water to a boil in a large pot.
  • Meanwhile, pulse 3 garlic cloves in a food processor until chopped. Add bread and pulse several times until fine crumbs form.
  • Heat 2 Tbsp. oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high. Add breadcrumb mixture and cook, stirring often, until crumbs are golden and crisp, 5–7 minutes. Transfer to a medium bowl. Add lemon zest, season with salt, and toss to combine; set aside.
  • Wipe out Dutch oven. Using a mandoline if you have one (if not, use a really sharp knife), very thinly slice remaining 9 garlic cloves. Heat ¼ cup oil in Dutch oven over medium. Cook garlic, stirring often, until golden around the edges, about 3 minutes. Add anchovies, if using, and ½ tsp. red pepper flakes and cook, stirring, until garlic is golden all over and anchovies are dissolved. Quickly stir in wine and simmer until only a couple of tablespoons of liquid are left in pot. Add clams and toss to combine. Cover and cook until clams are open, 5–7 minutes (about 4 minutes for cockles). Uncover pot and transfer clams to a medium bowl, leaving liquid in pot. If any clams are still closed, cover pot again and cook a few minutes longer, then transfer to bowl with others (discard any that have not opened at this point). Tent clams with foil.
  • Cook pasta in boiling water 5 minutes. Using a ladle or heatproof measuring cup, scoop out about 2 cups pasta cooking liquid. Using tongs, transfer pasta to pot with clam liquid. Add 1 cup pasta cooking liquid and bring to a boil. Cook, tossing constantly and adding more pasta cooking liquid a splash at a time if needed, until pasta is al dente and sauce is glossy and thick enough to cling to noodles, about 5 minutes.
  • Remove from heat. Add parsley and butter and toss until butter is melted. Sprinkle about one-third of breadcrumbs over pasta and toss to combine (you can add more or less depending on how much liquid is in bottom of pot—you want them to absorb some of the sauce but not make it dry). Give pasta a taste; you probably won’t need additional salt, but you can add some if you’d like. Divide pasta among shallow bowls and top with reserved clams, more breadcrumbs, red pepper flakes, and a drizzle of oil. Bon Appetit!
Keyword Italian, pasta, pasta with clams, seafood
Best Pasta and Clams
Best Pasta and Clams
Mussels with Tomatoes, Garlic, Lemons, & Wine
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Pinterest
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
  • Click to print (Opens in new window) Print
  • Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window) Tumblr
  • More
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit

Filed Under: Fish/Seafood Tagged With: clams, littleneck clams, pasta with clams

Primary Sidebar

Categories

  • Appetizer
  • Beans, Lentils, Grains, Rice
  • Beef
  • Bread
  • Breakfast/Brunch
  • Cocktails
  • Dessert
  • Dishes of Mexico, Tex Mex and New Mexico Red and Green Chile
  • Fish/Seafood
  • Ice Cream
  • Pasta
  • Pizza
  • Pork
  • Poultry
  • Salad Dressings
  • Salads
  • Salsas
  • Sandwiches/Burgers/Hot Dogs
  • Sauces, Compound Butters, Condiments
  • Side dish
  • Soups/Stews/Gumbo//Chili
  • Stocks, Broths, Gravies
  • Vegetables

Copyright © 2025 The 2 Spoons on the Foodie Pro Theme

Manage Cookie Consent
We use cookies to optimize our website and our service.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage {vendor_count} vendors Read more about these purposes
Preferences
{title} {title} {title}