It felt good to get back in the kitchen yesterday, if only for a few minutes to make a late afternoon lunch of linguini with white clam sauce. I'm still pretty frustrated with my home kitchen and the quality of ingredients available to the general public. I guess the curse of the restaurant trade is still strong.
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| Linguini with White Clam Sauce |
Linguini with white clam sauce is pretty much a classic dish and I don't stray far from my idea of what it should be. For me, it's a simple pasta in a loose beurre blanc. Start the pasta water to boil and then steam 24 steamer clams in a cup to a cup and a half or so of high acid white wine, in this case, Coelho Pinot Gris from my winery. These little guys steam open, covered, in 4-5 minutes.
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| Steamer Clams Steamed |
Remove the clams from the steaming liquid and let cool until you can just handle them. Pour the clam juice into a glass measure so that you can see the grit as it settles to the bottom. Pick the clams, reserve them warm, and pour any liquid into the glass measure.
Rinse the clam pan well to remove any grit, then fire it with a bit of olive oil on high flame. Add 1/2 cup of pancetta in small dice and let it cook until almost crisp. Add to the pan one large shallot, minced, four cloves of garlic, minced, one and a half teaspoons each of fresh thyme and fresh sage, finely chopped, and a pinch of crushed red pepper. Cook until the shallots go translucent but not so long that the garlic burns.
Carefully pour the reserved clam juice into the pan, making sure that any accumulated grit stays behind. Cook on high flame until the sauce comes down by two thirds.
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| Sauce Coming Down |
Finish cooking the pasta and transfer to a bowl. Remove the sauce from the flame and stir in the reserved clams, 1/4 cup of fresh parsley, and four tablespoons of cold butter, stirring rapidly to emulsify. Pour over the pasta and mix. Serves two to four people.
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| Waiting to Finish the Sauce |
