This pasta dish has been in my back pocket of recipes for over a decade. I can cook it on a weeknight, weekend, serve to house guests or catered events. It’s easy, quick, delicious!

The sauce is basically olive oil, flavoured with ouzo, wine, garlic, lemon juice and lemon zest, chilli flakes, parsley and thickened with pasta water (old school Italian hack). It’s one of those sauces that comes together in the time it takes to cook the pasta.

Clams can be found at most fish/seafood shops. They may contain some sand so a process called purging must take place before cooking them:

Place your clams in a strainer and rinse under cold water. Now place in a bowl and cover with some cold water and add about 1/3 cup of corn flour and let them soak for about 20 minutes. The clams are still alive and as they breath, they still filter water and sand out of their shells. Much of the sand will stick the the corn flour and sink to the bottom of your bowl. Just before you are ready to cook your clams, rinse them again under cold running water and strain.

Spaghetti With Clams

Recipe by Peter MinakiCourse: Fish u0026amp; Seafood, Main, Pasta

Servings

4

servings

Prep time

15

minutes

Cooking time

20

minutes

Ingredients

• 1lb. of littleneck or pasta clams (purged, see above)

• 1/4 cup Ouzo

• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

• 4 cloves of garlic, sliced

• 1/3 cup white wine

• 200 gr. spaghetti

• zest and juice of 1 lemon

• 1 cup chopped fresh parsley

• salt to taste

• sprinkle of chilli flakes

Directions

•  Place a pot of water on your stovetop, cover and bring to a boil. Add a good amount of salt and your pasta. Cool for about 7 minutes, strain but reserve a cup of pasta water.
• Place a large skillet on your stovetop over high heat. Add a a couple of tablespoons of olive oil, add your clams and saute for a minute. Add the ouzo into the pan and flambe. Once all the alcohol has burned off, add the garlic, wine, lemon juice and cover. Steam the clams for about 305 minutes or until they have opened. Take the clams out of the pan with a slotted spoon and reserve in a bowl.
• Add the pasta into the sauce plus 1/2 cup of pasta water and continue to toss pasta for a couple of minutes. Add more pasta water if needed.
• Add the clams to the pasta, remaining olive oil, lemon zest, parsley and toss to combine. Taste, add more salt if needed. Divide and plate, sprinkle chilli flakes on each portion.

So open a bottle of wine, prep the ingredients and enjoy this fresh bowl of clams and pasta.