Tag Archives: clam recipes

Clams in Broth

If I want to watch my mother’s face light up when she is visiting, all I need to say is do you want clams for dinner? The answer is always a resounding yes! That would explain all my variations of clam sauce or clams cooked in broth. This is one of my favorite versions of clams, especially when I’m looking for light meal. I just skip the pasta and eat the clams and broth with a spoon and little bread. It makes a great appetizer for six or dinner for four. If you want to use as a meal for Lent – just omit the pancetta. Try it this weekend and watch the faces at your dinner table light up too!
From by the bay wishing you lovely clam memories!
Maryann
blog clams broth
Clams in Broth
Serves 4
Ingredients
4 dozen littleneck clams, scrubbed and cleaned
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 ounces pancetta, cubed
1/2 teaspoons red chili flakes
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 medium onion, chopped
28 ounce can whole tomatoes, with liquid
8 ounces clam juice
1 tablespoon thyme leaves
Directions

Place a large pot on a medium heat, add olive oil and heat for 1-2 minutes , add pancetta and saute until crisp, then add garlic and onion, saute until soft, about 5 minutes add chili flakes and pepper and saute another minute. Add to the pot the tomatoes with liquid breaking the tomatoes with the back of your spoon, next add the clam juice and thyme. Bring to a boil add the clams and cover. Cook until clams are open, discard any unopened clams. Serve immediately with bread or pasta.

Mediterranean Grilled Clams with Spaghetti

New York City and it’s outer boroughs are a wonderful place to grow up. This is especially true as a young child discovering New York City.  I often think of NY as a collection of neighborhoods strung together, each one unique to discover. It’s amazing how there are all these wonderful locations tucked away ,often, only discovered when someone who inhabits one of these special places, invites you to share in their special world. Rockaway Beach in Queens is such a place. It stretches on a peninsula along the Atlantic Ocean and is the largest urban beach in the United States. The streets are lined with small bungalow houses. Fun fact these bungalow’s are currently being used to film the new HBO show Boardwalk Empire – recreating the rows of bungalows that once existed behind the Atlantic City Boardwalk – another favorite location from my childhood…but that’s another blog entry. This one is about how , as a child , my family would visit one of those cute bungalow’s in Rockaway Beach. The days were filled with sun, sand and clams. We would dig for clams along the beach and then the clams would be cleaned and cooked. It seemed to me that there were endless buckets of clams to eat, the adults would sit drink and laugh and the kids would be running along the beach. It’s here that I ate my first of many clams right out of the shell. This along with memories of wet bathing suits, sand in the bottom of my two piece bathing suit along with great food, laughter and good company lead me to create my clam recipe that I share today with you.

Wishing you the happiest and clammiest of food memories!   Maryann

blog med clam

This is also know as clams in sand as the breadcrumbs in this dish resembles sand when thrown in around the clams , however you would like to refer to this dish it’s a wonderful dish that evokes the seaside. 


Mediterranean Grilled Clams with Spaghetti

Serves 4


To make clams and bread crumb topping:

1 cup toasted bread crumbs

1 clove garlic, minced

2 tablespoons lemon juice

4 tablespoons olive oil

¼ cup sundried tomatoes, packed in oil, chopped

¼ cup Italian parsley, chopped

¼ cup fresh basil, chopped

¼ cup toasted walnuts, ground

¼ teaspoon red chili flakes

½ teaspoon fine sea salt

¼ teaspoon ground black pepper

36 littleneck clams, cleaned 


Directions 


Rinse clams with water removing all sand. Fill sink with cool water, add clams and 2 tablespoons salt Let stand for at least a ½ hour. When ready to grill, rinse with cool water again. 


In the meantime in a large bowl, combine all ingredients except clams and mix well. Remove ½ of the mixture and set aside. Heat grill, place clams on grill until they open. Discard any unopened clams. Toss together with the breadcrumb mixture to serve. 


To make spaghetti

1 lb spaghetti cooked 

¼ cup olive oil

¼ cup fresh lemon juice

2 tablespoons lemon zest

½ bread crumb mixture


Cook spaghetti according to package instructions. Remove from heat and drain. Place spaghetti into a large mixing bowl with the remaining ingredients and mix well. Place onto a platter. Add the clams and bread crumb mixture on to of the platter of spaghetti and serve. 


Note: You can serve this as a clam appetizer by eliminating the pasta and serving the clams with just the bread crumbs. Serves 6.

Mom’s Red Clam Sauce


My sister Nancy decided this was the weekend for elective surgery on her elbow. I had some time off and could help take care of her. My mom also offered to take care of her little girl. The surgery went well and the recovery was moving along. I thought I would make the most of a weekend shut in by taking the opportunity to cook with Mom one of our favorite comfort food sauces – red clam sauce. This was a sauce which both my mom and grandmother would cook for the family. My mom’s parents were both from Greece. They loved cooking seafood. When they settled in the United States it was in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn so that they could be close to the water. My grandfather was a sailor in his youth, he traveled often to the ports of both Italy and Greece and this is where he learnt to cook. This recipe is from the days of his youth on a carrier ship. Once my grandfather settled with his family in Brooklyn he would go down to the docks for clams and bring them home to be prepared. My grandmother would put up a big pot of this red clam sauce for their large family and their frequent visitors. By the time my mom was making the sauce, she opted for going to the fishmonger to buy shucked clams. Thankfully, this is how I’m preparing the sauce this weekend. Mom and I enjoyed out time discussing the recipe and making it. Perhaps even more important was how wonderful it was to be flooded with happy and loving memories that just tasting this sauce brought back to all three of us!

 
From by the bay, wishing you the happiest of food memories!
Maryann
 
blog clam sauce
 
Red Clam Sauce
Serves 6
 
6 tablespoons olive oil
1 large yellow onion, chopped
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 28 ounce can crushed tomatoes
1 bottle clam juice
2 cups water
3 springs fresh thyme
1 1/2 teaspoons dried thyme
1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
1 pound shucked and chopped clams
1 dozen littleneck clams, cleaned
1 teaspoon coarse sea salt
 
In a large pot heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil and saute the onion until soft, about 5 minutes. To the onion add tomato paste and mix well. Add the tomatoes, water, clam juice, fresh thyme , dried thyme, oregano and pepper. Bring to a boil , reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes partially covered. Stir the sauce occasionally as it simmers. After the 30 minutes add the cleaned littleneck clams to the sauce and cook until opened. In the meantime, in a skillet heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil and add the chopped clams cooking a few minutes. Add the cooked clams and juices into the sauce. Simmer a few more minutes , taste and if needed add the sea salt and the remaining 3 tablespoons of olive oil. Serve with cooked linguine, spaghetti or bucatini immediately. 
 
Enjoy!