How to Make Spaghetti with Clam Sauce
All right, linguini with clam sauce. Now, I’d like to use spaghetti by the way. So, I’m using a thin spaghetti here. You can use a linguini if you want. A very popular dish in Italian restaurants. Not a lot of people try this at home, they think it’s hard; it’s not hard at all.
Now, we’re going to breakdown a little bit. We’re going to use heavy cream. So, this is kind of forget the diet dish but when you taste it, it’s totally worth it. So, in a nice large kettle, it’s going fit all the pasta. I’m going to put one pint of heavy cream and one pint of clam sliced juice. So, I’m using two nine ounce jars. I know that’s over a pint but that’s what I have. So, if you’re going to buy those cans from the supermarket or the minced or chopped clam, you probably need four of those but whatever. Make sure you got at least a pint of clams with the juice. Do not drain it. The clam juice is an important factor.
Here’s my secret ingredient, to the pint of cream and the pint of clams and juice, I’m going to add one and a half anchovy fillet. Now, what’s going to happen? That anchovy is going to melt. It’s just going to dissolve right to the sauce and it’s going to provide a really nice briny saltiness that is just delicious. I’ve got to have garlic. Its’ not going to be linguini with clam sauce without garlic, so I put three cloves of smashed -- I did it through the press, minced or minced fine garlic; you want that really small.
I give that a stir. As soon as that sauce comes to a simmer which is going to take about five or six minutes, as soon as it comes to a simmer, you’ll see the bubbles start breaking the surface, turn it off. When the heat stays off, that’s it. We’ll spice this up a little bit with a half a teaspoon of red pepper flakes. Now in the meantime, while that’s coming to a simmer, like I said, it’s going to take about five minutes, I want you to separate one egg yolk. I don’t want any white at all. In fact, I want you to go watch the video where I show you how to separate an egg yolk through your fingers. I just want the yolk. I want you to put it in a small dish or small bowl.
As soon as that comes to a simmer, like I said, we’re going to turn it off and we’re going to take some of that hot cream sauce mixture. We’re going to add it right to our egg yolk. That’s one tablespoon, so I just stir in one tablespoon of that hot sauce. What we’re doing here is a technique called tempering. If I just add that egg yolk into that hot sauce, I would have cooked egg yolk chunks. So, by tempering it -- that’s my second spoon. There’s my third spoon. Three spoons should be enough, maybe four would be safe.
So, as soon as that egg yolk -- now it’s hot because I introduced the hot sauce to it. Now, I’m gong to take a wooden spoon. I’m going to stir that egg yolk and cream mixture right back in. That egg yolk is just going to tighten or thicken the sauce up slightly, especially when I add the hot pasta which is the next step and it gives it just an amazing texture, a little extra richness. Give that a try, that works pretty much in any cream sauce. Here, it’s really, really nice.
That is one pound of thin spaghetti. Again, traditional linguini, I think the spaghetti calls more of a sauce. Here’s what we’re going to do, we’re going to be patient here. We’re going to let the pasta and the sauce kind of get to know each other for a little while. We’re going to give them a little privacy. We’re going to put the lid on and you’re going to back away. You’re not going to open that lid for five minutes. It’s going to stay hot, don’t worry. What’s going to happen in that five minutes, that pasta is going to suck up all that beautiful clam, a little bit anchovy, the hot pepper flavor, the heat from the pasta is going to thicken that egg yolk and when you take that lid five minutes later, you’re going to see just an amazing pasta dish.
I’m going to finish with a quarter cup of grated parmesan. I know some chefs would say “You can never add cheese to a seafood pasta”, why not? It tastes good in this one. So, I know that’s a sect religious with some chefs. Hey, I think it’s sect religious. I borrowed that from The Simpsons.
So, give that a stir, put the lid back on. Let it sit for 30 more seconds and get your plates ready. This is just an amazingly delicious pasta dish and there we go.
Now, give yourself the first shot. I like to top a pasta like this with some crunched up croutons. You can make homemade if you want. I did. I have just regular high quality garlic and herb croutons. I smashed them in a Ziploc bag with a heavy can. I topped it with some basil chiffonade. That is a delicious, delicious pasta dish. Give it a try and enjoy!
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