Linguine alle Vongole
Sep 02, 2014, Updated Oct 31, 2014
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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.
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.
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.
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.
I am not an oyster fan but I do love mussels. Do you think you could substitute?
Hi Deb! The recipe actually uses cockles which are small clams. If you’re not a fan of clams you could easily substitute mussels 🙂
What a gorgeous dish! Pinning!
French fries are totally the best hangover food! And fried eggs 🙂 Loving this pasta…my husband’s not a clam lover so I’m saving this one for girls night!
This would be a very popular dish in our house. Plus it is deceptively easy. I can’t wait to make it.
I’ve had to make myself come to the realization lately that I just cannot drink or eat (sniff) the way I could 10 years ago. And I don’t like it. 😉 I do, however, like this dish – a lot (also a huge seafood lover). Beautiful!
oh, there haven’t been any good drinking days here either recently;)Now I’m happy just enjoying one great glass of wine! This is fabulous, Brandy (my son’s favorite pasta dish!)Pinned to my pasta board!
I’m not much of a clam eater but my hubby and even my kids love them!! These pics alone though make me want to dive in and eat it!
oh my gawd, I love seafood with linguine. . this is like one of my fave dishes! Sorry your BFF didn’t get to enjoy this. . next time! it’s looks freaking delicious!
I love dishes like this, so brilliant in their simplicity!
Give me a big bowl of this – PLEASE!! So good! And I hear ya on the hangover thing, I went through that myself recently and whoa buddy, it was a hefty price to pay for that night of fun. Good times! ; )