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Linguine alle Vongole

This linguine alle vongole combines fresh cockles, pasta, white wine and garlic. It’s a simple pasta dish that will please the clam lovers in your life.

This linguine alle vongole combines fresh cockles, pasta, white wine and garlic. It's a simple pasta dish that will please the clam lovers in your life.

You know what I learned this weekend? Apparently at 32 years of age I cannot bounce back from a hangover quite like I could when I was 23. That means I spent my day constantly wanting to nap, drink water, take Aleve and eat French fries.

Seriously, why are French fries the best hangover food ever? It’s like they are magical hangover fried sticks of amazingness.

This linguine alle vongole combines fresh cockles, pasta, white wine and garlic. It's a simple pasta dish that will please the clam lovers in your life.

Sadly I’m pretty sure my best friend learned this lesson too. Damn bourbon.

She came this weekend for a short visit and besides that one dinner where we drank too many Manhattans, we basically ate our combined weight in delicious food. We were jokingly trying to figure out how many animals we ate this weekend and this is what we came up with:

  • 36 oysters
  • 30 large shrimp
  • 5 king crabs (just their claws)
  • 1 cow (a few steaks and burgers)
  • 1 pig (pulled pork, bacon and ham)

Yeah, we REALLY love eating together. It’s basically our thing. We also really love seafood…if you didn’t quite figure that out.

This linguine alle vongole combines fresh cockles, pasta, white wine and garlic. It's a simple pasta dish that will please the clam lovers in your life.

Sadly my best friend wasn’t able to enjoy this pasta because I made it a few weeks before her arrival. My husband was out of town and I decided that instead of eating a boring peanut butter and jelly sandwich I was going to make an actual dinner.

I went off the store and picked up a pound of cockles (little clams), fresh pasta and some white wine. It’s a simple dish that can be prepared in just about 30 minutes. The most important part to remember is the clams must be soaked before cooking so they have a chance to spit out any sand.

Nothing worse that sandy clams.

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Linguine alle Vongole

This linguine alle vongole combines fresh cockles, pasta, white wine and garlic. It's a simple pasta dish that will please the clam lovers in your life.

Yield: 2 servings

Prep Time: 20 minutes plus time for clams to soak

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

2 pounds cockles (clams)
6 ounces fresh linguine
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 garlic cloves, grated or minced
1-2 teaspoons crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 cup dry white wine, divided
2 tablespoons roughly chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Slightly adapted from Bon Appetit

Directions:

Gently wash the outside of the clam shells to remove any algae or seaweed from the shells. Place clams in a large bowl (or your sink) and fill with cold water. Let the clams stay in the water for at least 30 minutes to spit out any sand. You will see sand start to settle on the bottom of the bowl or sink. I normally let my clams sit for 30 mins, rinse the bowl/sink, refill with more cold water and let sit for another 30 minutes.

Once the clams are ready give them a rinse and set aside.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat. Add in a heavy pinch of kosher salt. Add fresh pasta to the pot and boil for 2 minutes to soften the pasta and drain, set aide.

In a large skillet set over medium high heat add olive oil and butter. When the oil/butter is hot add garlic, red pepper flakes, 1/4 cup white wine and clams. Cover and let cook for about 5 minutes or until all the clams have opened up. If you notice a clam shell that does not open, throw it away.

Using tongs remove the clams from the skillet and place into a bowl.

Add remaining 1/4 cup wine to the skillet and add in pasta. Toss to warm pasta and let it continue cooking until al dente. The pasta will soak up some of the juices in the skillet.

Once the pasta is cooked add clams back to the skillet and sprinkle with parsley. Toss to combine.

If the pasta seems a little dry you can drizzle with a little extra good quality olive oil.

Serve warm and with crusty bread to sop up all the delicious sauce.

Brandy

About Brandy!

I am a food lover and recipe developer bringing you delicious recipes that taste great and are easy to make! My food is inspired by travels around the world and my love of flavorful food. A list of things that make me happy: cats, Coke Zero, houseplants, and travel. Read more...

Paula - bell'alimento

Thursday 4th of September 2014

One of my favorites! Pinned.

christine

Wednesday 3rd of September 2014

Sounds delicious. Bouncing back from a night of boozing, just keeps getting harder and harder to do. Give it 5 more years and it's almost impossible :-)

Lauren @ Healthy Delicious

Wednesday 3rd of September 2014

I'm totally jealous of your seafood feast! I love shellfish, too. Especially tiny little clams like these (which for some reason seem next to impossible to find up here... everyone seems to only cary bigger ones. Boo!)

Susan

Wednesday 3rd of September 2014

This dish is just perfection and it makes me realize I'm overdue for it, it's been awhile. Also yeah, I can't drink like I could in my 20's. I cut myself off if I actually want to be productive the next day!

Renee - Kudos Kitchen

Wednesday 3rd of September 2014

I'm so impressed that you cook like this just for yourself. You go girl! I also appreciate the tip about soaking the clams in water before cooking them. I had no idea. Next weekend we're hosting a low-country boil so this information will come in handy. Thanks!

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