- 1 cup water
- 24 topneck clams, scrubbed
- 1/3 cup chopped garlic
- 1/3 cup California Olive Ranch Miller's Blend extra virgin olive oil
- ½ tsp. crushed red pepper
- ½ tsp. dried oregano, crumbled
- Coarse salt
- ¾ lb. linguine
- ½ cup chopped fresh parsley
Bring the water to a boil in a large pot. Drop in the clams, cover the pot, and steam until the clams open.
Drain the clams into a strainer set over a bowl. When the clams are cool enough to handle, remove them from the shells—over the strainer so you capture all the juice. Chop the clams coarse. Reserve the clams and juice separately.
Meanwhile, put the garlic and California Olive Ranch Miller's Blend extra virgin olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. When the garlic starts to sizzle, reduce the heat to very low and let the garlic infuse into the California Olive Ranch Miller's Blend extra virgin olive oil for 15 minutes. Take it slow; you don’t want the garlic to color.
Add the crushed red pepper and oregano to the garlic oil and heat for 5 minutes. Add the reserved clam juice, crank the heat to high, and reduce by half. Keep the sauce warm on the back of the stove.
While the sauce simmers, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook the linguine until al dente. Drain and return it to the pot.
Add the sauce, clams, and parsley to the pasta and toss well. Serve right away.
Chef's Note: There’s a real good hit of garlic in this dish, complimenting the ocean brininess of the clams. It’s not for the faint of heart.
About Cooking Clams: Let me tell you something about clams: they don’t all pop open at the same time, and some of them can be pretty persistent about keeping “clammed up.” This is very much the case when you’re steaming a lot of clams. So keep your eye on the pan and remove the clams with tongs as they open. Transfer the opened clams to the colander set over the bowl, then put the lid back on and shake the pan again. Check in another minute, and keep removing clams as they open.
Then there are clams that never seem to open. Kitchen wisdom says to discard unopened clams, but I’ve never had a problem with them. These clams seem to be the ones with the strongest muscles, and if you look at them after they’ve steamed for a while, you’ll see that they are actually just the smallest bit open. So I use a small knife to cut the muscle and drop the clam in with the rest.
You can substitute littleneck clams for this; you’ll need 4 dozen.
Recipe courtesy of Fish Without Doubt by Rick Moonen & Roy Finamore (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 2008)