Linguine with Clam Sauce

This dish was a revelation...but that just might be all the heavy cream talking. The best part was that it was so easy, and came from fairly humble ingredients (i.e. canned clams and dried pasta). I must admit, before cooking this dish, I wouldn't have thought to use canned clams as an ingredient. They just seemed so unappetizing. However, PW has showed me the error of my ways and this fantastic pasta dish can be extrapolated from the lowly tin of canned and chopped clams. As I mentioned, there was heavy cream (and butter) in this recipe; so it wasn't exactly "healthy", but it was sooooo delicious. The list of ingredients is not very long, and a lot of them are pantry staples. That also makes this awesome pasta dish a very budget-friendly meal. My family loved it, and my almost-5 year old son was sad that there were not any leftovers the next day. This is certainly another cookbook project score for us!

Linguine with Clam Sauce
From: The Pioneer Woman Cooks! cookbook, by: Ree Drummond

Ingredients:
2 – 10 oz cans of clams, drained, juice reserved
3 cloves garlic, minced
Chopped parsley
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp olive oil
¾ c. white wine
¾ c. heavy cream
Juice of ½ lemon
Linguine or spaghetti
Salt and pepper to taste
lemon slices and grated Parmesan for garnish

Directions:
Cook pasta according to package directions, and set aside.

Melt 1 tbsp of the butter with the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat
Add the clams and garlic, cook about 3 minutes.

Add the wine and stir, making sure to scrape up the browned bits on the bottom of the pan to incorporate into the sauce. Let it cook for 3-4 minutes, until wine has reduced a bit and it doesn’t smell so “alcohol-y” and the sauce isn't so watery.

Lower the heat. Add lemon juice and the remaining butter. stir through and cook a few more minutes.

Add cream, parsley, salt and pepper to taste. Cook until heated through, another 3-4 minutes. Add some of the reserved clam juice if the sauce is too thick, then combine with cooked pasta. Toss to combine and serve immediately with fresh lemon slices and grated Parmesan cheese.



The Result:
We couldn't get enough of this delicious pasta dish. It was completely decadent with minimal effort and expense. Do yourself a favor and make this recipe soon. You won't be disappointed!