clams Archives - Proud Italian Cook

Hearty And Healthy Manhattan Clam Chowder

November 17, 2024 by Marie Leave a Comment

Manhattan clam chowder (red), is a tomato based clam chowder which is light and brothy. Side by side it’s nowhere near the New England version,(white),which is made with milk or cream as the base.

Both versions are super delicious, but if you want something easy to make, lower in calories and carbs, Manhattan clam chowder is the version for you.

Think of it like a minestrone that’s chock full of clams, potatoes, bacon and other aromatic vegetables and herbs.

You can use fresh clams, shucked of course but you’ll need quite a few, or for quick and easy version buy some bottled or canned whole baby clams with the juice. I usually buy a frozen container of raw, chopped sea clams that I get from my local Whole foods, when defrosted they taste just like fresh clams, very delicious.

A steamy hot bowl of this chowder on a cold winter night will satisfy all your senses, all you need is a hunk of crusty bread or some saltine crackers!

Enjoy!

Hearty Healthy Manhattan Clam Chowder

A lighter version of clam chowder with the same components as the creamy clam chowder with a much healthier twist.

Author: Marie

Ingredients

16 oz. or more if you wish of clams. I used frozen, raw, chopped sea clams but you can use bottled or canned whole baby clams with the juice.
1-8oz. bottle of clam juice
1-14 oz. can of cherry tomatoes
3 slices of bacon cut into small pieces
2 medium potatoes, I used red with the skin on, chopped
2 or 3 carrots, diced
2 or 3 stalks of celery, diced
a pinch or so of red pepper flakes, you'll need some heat so do it to your liking
olive oil, salt and pepper to taste
4 garlic cloves, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1 heaping teaspoon of dried thyme
2 bay leaves
a handful of fresh chopped parsley

Instructions

Drizzle olive oil into a heavy bottomed pan, add bacon until it gets nice and crispy. If you think its too greasy remove some.
Stir in the carrots, onions, celery, garlic, potatoes and red pepper flakes and thyme, cook till semi soft.
Add the clam juice, tomatoes and all your clams.
Simmer until everything is cooked through and tender, taste for seasoning then add in the parsley.
Now ladle some into a bowl!

Leave a Comment Filed Under: Seafood, Soups and Stews Tagged: chowder, clam chowder, clams, healthy version, low carb

Linguine with White Clam Sauce

December 6, 2021 by Marie 4 Comments

Linguine and clams or as Italians call it, Pasta Alle Vongole is the kind of dish that can make a midweek meal feel special as well as a date night dinner or a fabulous dinner for entertaining and the holidays.

Speaking of holidays, Christmas is a couple of weeks away and The Feast Of The Seven Fishes will be celebrated on Christmas Eve, and this is the perfect dish to feature as one.

My white sauce version consists of good olive oil, lots of garlic, white wine and fresh clams. It’s so easy to make, very affordable and down right delicious!

In my version I like to use a mix of Little Neck clams in the shell and some raw chopped sea clams that I discovered over at Whole Foods from my fish monger. They’re freshly shucked and then frozen.

If you can get your hands on these frozen chopped clams I highly recommend, very tender and delicious clam meat that tastes really fresh, but. remember they don’t have any clam juice with them, they’re just fresh shucked clams that are frozen, so you’ll need. bottled clam juice.

If you can’t find them you can replace it with 2 jars of shelled baby clams, use the liquid but I still prefer the bottled clam juice.

I like going heavy on the clams, the more the merrier!

Although it’s not mandatory to add clams in the shell to this dish, I personally love the presentation and the mix of them both together.

This dish comes together in less than 30 minutes, just get the water going for the pasta and start to make the sauce.

The longest part in making this dish may be the cleaning of the whole clams, I think I do a little over kill of that because one time, very long ago I left sand inside and ruined the whole meal, so I tend to rinse and rinse and rinse, so you’ll want to do that ahead of time.

It’s all so worth it in the end when you have this sweet and meaty clam and pasta dish filled with wine and garlicky goodness sitting in front of you!

Linguine With White Clam Sauce

A special weeknight, date night, entertaining and holiday dish, linguine and white clam sauce will never disappoint.

Author: Marie

Ingredients

1 pound linguine or spaghetti
1 lb. fresh shucked clams, previously frozen which I buy at Whole Foods, or ask your fish monger if they carry them, defrosted in fridge
(NOTE:) You can replace the frozen shucked clams with 2 7 oz. bottles of whole shelled. baby clams, use the juice it comes with or drain them and buy bottled clam juice.
1 dozen whole fresh clams in the shell like Little necks or steamers. ( I always get a few more in case some don't open.)
1 bottle of clam juice
6 garlic cloves chopped
⅓ to ½ cup of dry white wine such as Pinot Grigio, Chardonay or Savignon Blanc
¼ cup and more of olive oil
chili flakes enough to your liking
a big punch of fresh chopped parsley
salt and pepper to taste
a squeeze of lemon, not too much, just a little

Instructions

You can store your fresh clams in a bowl with ice cubes on top a day ahead, do not submeergee in water.
When ready to use the clams, scrub them first on the shell then place them into a bowl with cold water and a small handful of cornmeal, the cornmeal is said to draw out the sand, so I always do it. Let it sit for 10 minutes and scoop them out and discard the sandy water.
Do the rinsing several times until you don't see any sand at the bottom of the bowl.
In a big pot start your water boiling for the pasta, don't forget to add a nice handful of salt to the water.
In a deep large skillet add the olive oil, garlic and red pepper flakes, saute til lightly golden.
Add the Little neck clams and the wine and let it reduce a little.
Pour in ¾ of the bottled clam juice, (depending on juicy you want it you can decide to toss in the rest) the fresh shucked and defrosted clams or the 2 drained jars of clams plus a squeeze of lemon, put a lid on top and cook and steam til the whole clams open up and everything melds together, it doesn’t take very long.
Discard any unopened clam shells or broken shells as well.
Cook your pasta til al dente and toss into the clam sauce mix.
Add the parsley, maybe more red pepper flakes and a good drizzle of olive oil all over.
Enjoy!

4 Comments Filed Under: Pasta, Seafood Tagged: clams, clams and linguine, feast of the seven fishes, little neck clams, pasta alle vongole, seafood, vongole

Perfect Baked Stuffed Clams

December 28, 2019 by Marie 14 Comments

Typically when we’re at an Italian restaurant and there’s baked clams on the menu we order them. Baked clams are the perfect starter to a nice Italian meal.

Have you ever wanted to make them at home? They’re very easy to make and personally I like them much better home made. They’re a lovely appetizer for a special meal. I recently made a full tray of baked stuffed clams for Christmas Eve, and not one of them were left, they really go fast, in fact I could have made more but then no one would have eaten anything else! New Years Eve is almost here, so grab a bottle of wine and start your party off with a tray of delicious baked stuffed clams.

So much flavor packed into one bite, the stuffed clams are tender and sweet, the breading crispy, cheesy, zesty, garlicky, I could go on and on, but let me show you how easy it is to make them.

First of all whenever you buy clams and they say they’re cleaned just ignore that, you’re going to find sand in there and they will be gritty if not soaked and drained a few times.

I had five pounds of fresh clams that I picked up at Costco. I let them soak in cold water for around twenty minutes in a strainer with a bowl underneath so I can see any sand that comes out when I drain them. It usually takes three times of soaking and draining.

Then give each one a gentle scrub and discard the broken shells with exposed clam, I had three, trust me you’ll always have some to discard, so count for a few bad ones when buying them.

Next you’ll want to poach or steam your impeccably cleaned clams in a liquid of water, white wine, some garlic cloves and a bay leaf, letting them simmer in a covered lid on the pot scooping them out as they open, one by one. If doing a large amount don’t overcrowd them do half at a time or get another pot going.

Place the steamed opened clams into a bowl so they can cool down. The best thing about this method is that you don’t have to do any shucking to the raw clams, this makes the whole process so easy! Once they cool down just wiggle off the top of the shell so you have an open half shell, how easy is that!

Some clams have that little rubbery black thing attached that you see above, it’s part of the neck, just snip it off with a pair of scissors, it takes a second.

For five pounds of clams I ended up with forty five clams on the half shell. A few were broken and a few never opened up when they were steamed, those have to be discarded as well if that happens.

Place you half shells on a foil lined sheet pan drizzled with olive oil. At this point if you were making them for a crowd you could prep this all the day up to this point and then refrigerate and proceed with the stuffing the next day.

You can stuff the clams before your guests arrive so you’re ready to place them into the oven when everyone is ready to enjoy, you want to eat them hot.

The stuffing recipe will be below, I recommend making your own breadcrumbs if possible, but if not buy some good quality ones that are plain because you’ll be flavoring them up yourself.

Each clam gets about a heaping teaspoon of stuffing.

Then a quick drizzle of olive oil over top of each stuffed clam and into the oven they go to bake, you can also add somee clam juice and a touch of white wine.

A light crispy bite with a ton of flavor that enhances the tender clam below!

Serve it with a little hot sauce and lemon slices on the side, I promise, you’re going to love these!

Follow me on Instagram to see what else I’m cooking up during the week.

5.0 from 2 reviews

Perfect Baked Stuffed Clams

Refer to step by step on blogpost

Author: Marie

Ingredients

5 lbs. fresh, little neck clams could yield 4 dozen depending on size and discards, cleaned, scrubbed and sand removed as outlined in blogpost
POACHING LIQUID
water, 1 cup white wine, a few whole garlic cloves, a bay leaf and a small bunch of parsley, just enough to cover the clams.
FILLING
2 cups homemade or good quality bread crumbs
4 tablespoons each of unsalted butter and olive oil
zest of 1 lemon
3 or 4 garlic cloves grated on a microplane
a handful of chopped parsley
½ cup of grated pecorino romano cheese
salt and pepper to taste
lemon for garnish
hot sauce optional
bottled clam juice and a little wine for liquid at the bottom of the pan, (optional).

Instructions

Clean clams according to step by step on blog post
Steam clams as stated in step by step on post.
Prepare the half shells as pictured in post for a visual.
In a small saucepan, melt butter and olive oil together.
Stir in grated garlic and simmer until it's infused but not golden or dark.
In a bowl add the breadcrumbs, zest, cheese, parsley, salt and pepper, mix together then pour in the melted oil/butter with garlic mixture and stir together until it looks like wet sand, if too dry add more melted butter and olive oil.
Fill each half shell with a heaping teaspoon of the stuffing mixture and place them onto a foil lined sheet pan.
Drizzle the tops with olive oil and place into a pre-heated 450 degree oven for around 8 minutes, you cqn add. some clam juice and white wine to the bottom of the pan as well, it's optional.
They should be medium golden brown when finished, also nice and crispy.
Serve immediately with lemon slices and hot sauce on the side.

14 Comments Filed Under: Appetizers, Seafood Tagged: baked clams, clams, stuffed clams

Clams With Spicy Sausage in Garlicky Tomato Broth

March 11, 2018 by Marie 4 Comments

Get your napkins ready, because there’s nothing like a big pot of clams with spicy Italian sausage floating in a garlicky tomato broth! Other than some crusty bread for dunking, that’s all you’ll be needing with this.

Let’s talk clams, Littleneck clams are best for this recipe, fresh of course. Make sure you clean them really good, trust me, tasting sand is something you do not want!

I like to scrub the clams really good with a stiff brush removing any out side sand, then soak them in a bowl of cold water with some cornmeal sprinkled in for twenty minutes, the cornmeal helps to draw out any of the sand that might be inside the shells, then fill the bowl with water and rinse again, filling with cold water and rinsing a couple more times.

If you see any shells that are open test them by tapping them against another clam, hopefully they will close, if not just discard. Likewise you’ll want to discard If any of the shells are cracked and chipped.

You can pretty much count on some not opening so allow for that when your buying them so you’ll want to add a few extra.

I like using thinly shaved garlic in this recipe, the garlic pieces seem to land right into the shells and it’s so delicious! Spicy Italian sausage is key, it flavors the dish so well, but if you need something less spicy go with mild and just add a little red pepper flakes, you need a little kick!

You could add pasta with this if you like but I think you’ll be throughly content with some warm crusty bread for dunking!

Follow me on Instagram to see what else I’m cooking up during the week.

5.0 from 1 reviews

Clams With Spicy Sausage in Garlicky Tomato Broth

This recipe will happily feed two, so feel free to adjust amounts accordingly.

Author: Marie

Ingredients

2 dozen Littleneck clams
¾ lb of spicy Italian sausage, casings removed
1 14 oz. can of cherry tomatoes or baby roma tomatoes ( I used Mutti brand)
½ bottle of clam juice about 4 oz. is needed
5 large garlic cloves, shaved or thinly sliced
1 medium onion, diced
a good splash of white wine
a bunch of parsley
a knob of butter
olive oil
salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

Instructions

In a heavy bottomed pot or skillet with high sides, drizzle in some olive oil and cook the sausage on medium high heat, making sure to break it up into smaller pieces and cook until you see no more pink then remove from pan and set aside.
In same skillet drizzle a little more olive oil into the pan then add in the garlic and onions and saute until soft but not caramelized.
Add the clams tossing them a few times into the garlic and onions.
Add the white wine to deglaze and let it cook down a couple of minutes, tossing the clams.
Add in the tomatoes and all the sausage back in stirring until well distributed, then stick a cover on the pan so the clams can steam in the liquid and open up gently.
When clams have all opened up, stir in a knob of butter and chopped parsley for garnish, maybe a quick drizzle of olive oil too.
If a clam didn't open and the rest did, just discard it.
Don't forget the crusty bread, I like to slice a rustic loaf and drizzle with olive oil and stick under the broiler to get it crunchy, but keep checking it could burn easily!