Linguine with Clam Sauce.
By Rosalie Harrington
“Come out here with me, Noni,” grandson Nick said excitedly about feeling a “big, very big” clam.
It was a blazing hot day about 10 days ago, and I sat at the ocean’s edge with my legs in the cool water, watching 8-year-old Nick attack the ocean with the zeal that only a boy can deliver. With his goggles on to help him see the ocean bottom, he was sure that he was on to something.
Just as my Nono had taught me, I told Nick to look for big holes and, that if he was lucky, he would find a clam. The effort would require some digging – several inches perhaps – and a great deal of patience. “This one is really big Noni,” he told me dramatically. Nick has my exaggeration gene, so I figured maybe he had cornered a cherrystone or quahog. But suspecting something larger, I went to offer my help and support. After a few minutes of grabbing at the shell, with his body partially submerged, Nick surfaced with a giant sea clam in hand.
It was as if he had found gold — he could not have been more excited.
That first catch provided loads of incentive to look for more, and for the next 40 minutes or so he searched for another and, remarkably, he found an even larger one. Thirty minutes later he was in a battle for a third giant clam, but the suction and size, plus some considerable fatigue, did him in and he surrendered.
That night we feasted on stuffed clams, which Nick wasn’t thrilled about, but he was excited to be the fisherman who brought in the catch. Like so many fishermen and hunters before him, he was quite pleased to tell the story of how, in a matter of a few hours, he had brought a vicious sea creature to submission, and then, to table.
This experience brought to mind my own encounters at around the same age as Nick, clamming with my Nono on Revere Beach, Short Beach, Salem Willows or wherever the tide was right. If Nono could get a ride, he would travel any distance, pitchfork and bucket in tow. Our family loved soft-shelled clams, cherrystones, mussels and giant crabs.
My job was to find the holes for the soft-shelled clams. I would stomp my foot near the hole and if there was a squirt from the hole I would scream for Nono and he would start to dig. Often, there were many clams in the one hole, which was very exciting.
My favorite job was looking for crabs under a good-sized rock. I just needed to turn the rock over and scream for Nono. They were large, and me and Noni and the rest of us loved when they were cooked in a tomato sauce and served with spaghetti. If Noni made a lot of sauce we would cook periwinkles in the sauce and with a toothpick pluck out the delicate morsel inside of the shell.
We just had the best vacation of the summer. My daughter Danielle, her boys Nick and Ethan, my daughter Kathy, who is visiting from Florida, and I were guests of my brother Anthony and his wife Carolyn in Osterville. The highlight was an unexpected visit from my niece Carrie and her daughter, who took a bus from Newton to be with us for an overnight.
Not to be outdone, the now experienced Nick was giving orders as we clammed. My brother, who makes the most delicious dishes — clams casino, clam sauce, baked stuffed clams — learned by osmosis the art of clam preparation. He is now preparing his freezer for the “Vigilia,” the Feast of the Seven Fishes on Christmas Eve. He will shuck several pecks of a variety of clams for the occasion. We left the Cape with enough clams to make a clam sauce for the 11th birthday celebration for Ethan the next day and wonderful memories of swimming in the beautiful crystal-clear ponds, family dinners, completed jigsaw puzzles, lawn games, bicycling and lots of laughs.
Linguine with Clam Sauce
(Serves four to six.)
- Place a large pot of water over medium heat to start the process of cooking 1 pound of linguine.
- Wash 4 cups of grape tomatoes.
- In a heavy saucepan, place 4 tablespoons of olive oil and 3 cloves of chopped garlic. Sauté the garlic over medium heat, do not brown it, as the browning locks the flavor in.
- Pour in the grape tomatoes, 1 teaspoon of salt and, over medium heat, cook the tomatoes, watching the pan to assure the tomatoes don’t stick to the bottom.
- Add 1/4 cup of water to the pan after a few minutes, and add a few sprigs each of rosemary and thyme and simmer until the tomatoes burst. Remove from the heat. Discard the herbs.
- Puree tomatoes in the food processor, set aside.
- To prepare clams: Wash carefully under running water to remove sand; discard all opened clams. Place cleaned and scrubbed clams in a colander. Do not submerge them in water.
- In a heavy shallow pan like a fry pan, place 3 tablespoons of olive oil and a few cloves of chopped garlic. Cook the garlic until it is soft. Add 1 cup of white wine or 1 cup of chicken or clam broth and the tomato sauce; bring to a simmer. Add the clams and cover the pan.
- After a few minutes, the smaller clams will start to open. As they open, remove to a platter with a slotted spoon.
- Cook the linguine and drain. Arrange the clams in a circle on a platter and toss the linguine with a few tablespoons of butter.
- Spoon the tomato sauce over the linguine, reserve some sauce for passing at the table, and sprinkle several tablespoons chopped basil over everything.
I like to serve grated Parmesan cheese with this dish, but in Italy this is strictly prohibited. Other cheeses like Pecorino Romano are OK though, as I recall. In Italian restaurants, they won’t even bring Parmesan to the table; they can’t imagine cheese and fish together. But I can!