Baby Lady loves mussels. I like them a lot but what I really love is clams. Cooked right they are tender, succulent, incredibly juicy and delicately delightful.
I love going to the market right now. All sorts of foods are available. We are seeing mussels, clams, diver scallops, Spanish mackerel, red snapper, and unbelievable assortment of seafood and fish. Yesterday, we went to the market specifically to buy some swordfish for tonight’s dinner. While we were there we found some beautiful cherrystone clams, along with some grouper for Baby Lady’s ceviche. So, for dinner last night, we decided to have linguini with mushrooms and clams in a beautiful white wine sauce. It was delicious! Light, fresh, full of flavor. Baby Lady strongly approved and even Quickstep thought it was really good. If you like clams, give this recipe a try.
Ingredients
- Kosher salt
- 10 ounces linguini
- 6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
- 2 garlic clove, peeled and thinly sliced
- 1 shallot, minced
- 8 oz crimini mushrooms, cleaned, stemmed and quartered
- 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- 1/2 cup white wine
- 3 pounds cherrystone clams, scrubbed
- 2 tablespoons roughly chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
Instructions
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Season highly with salt; add pasta and cook, stirring occasionally, roughly 7 – 8 minutes. Drain, reserving 1/2 cup pasta cooking water.
Meanwhile, heat 1/4 cup oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and cook, swirling pan often, until just golden. Add shallots, red pepper flakes and mushrooms.
Continue cooking 30 – 45 seconds more. Add wine
then clams and increase heat to high.
Cover skillet and cook until clams open and release their juices, 3-6 minutes, depending on size of clams. When clams open, use tongs to transfer them to a bowl.
Once clams are removed, add 1/4 cup of the reserved pasta water to skillet; bring to a boil. Add pasta to pan.
Cook over high heat, tossing constantly, until pasta is al dente and has soaked up some of the sauce from the pan. Return clams and any juices from bowl to skillet to heat through and toss to combine. Add more pasta water if sauce seems dry.
Pour into serving bowl. Add parsley, and toss to combine.
Transfer pasta to warm bowls and drizzle with remaining oil. Serve and enjoy!
REMCooks 
I just enjoyed a version of this Friday night. Such a simple dish, so easy to prepare, and yet so tasty! For the sake of the shellfish populations, it’s probably a good thing I don’t live near the coast.
LOL! I must admit I wish I lived closer to the coast! Thanks for the comment.
Fantastic picture. I am drooling on the keyboard!
Thanks. I’m glad you like. 🙂
Nice photos! I love spaghetti vongole. I never think of adding mushrooms. Too much of a purist perhaps when it comes to clams to let them share a pan with anything else. Time to look out for some clams.
Thanks for dropping by and your nice comment. Generally, I like just the clams and pasta but we had some beautiful criminis I just had to try with this dish. Mushrooms and clams are always a good combination. 🙂
Reblogged this on Always, Allie and commented:
This looks amazing!
Thanks for dropping by and visiting. I am honored you liked the dish enough to share it with your friends and followers.