One of my favorites!

Linguine alle Vongole Veneziano

This is the quintessential summer dish of Venice. I was taught this dish by a friend whose father was a clam fisherman in the outer lagoons of Venice. Every week during the summer months we had this dish with a fresh loaf of crunchy italian bread and wine of course. The clams of Venice are very small and sweet. They are unavailable here but they can be replaced with any small shelled clam.

Ingredients
2-3 lbs of fresh small clams, tightly closed, scrubbed
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 bunch of Italian parsley, minced
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cube salted butter
3 ripe roma tomatoes, minced
1/3 cup of white wine
1 lb Linguine pasta
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
Salt to taste

Scrub clams with your hands while running fresh water over them in a colander. Place the clams in a pot of cold salted water for about an hour to let them purge themselves of sand. Rinse with cold water in a colander.

Heat a pot of salted water for the linguine. Start cooking linguine when you are about 5 minutes into the clam dish. When the pasta is done, drain the water out in a colander and put the linguine back in the pot. Add some olive oil, butter, minced garlic, salt and fresh pepper to taste.

Using a large deep skillet, heat olive oil and butter under high heat. Just before the butter burns add the minced parsley. Stand back because there will be some splattering and steam. Stir parsley around then add salt, pepper and garlic and stir together. Reduce heat to medium and add clams and tomatoes. Cover and let cook for 6 or 8 minutes. Add white wine and recover stirring once in a while. When the clams are all open it is done. The whole process shouldn’t take more than about 15 minutes from start to finish. You do not want to over cook the clams because they can become tough. If any clams have not opened at all, throw the unopened ones away.

Mix in seasoned linguine with the clams and serve. I frequently use the skillet as a serving pan but you can pour the whole mixture in wide serving dish. You don’t want the dish too deep because people will want to get to the clam juice for bread dipping! Garnish with fresh parley sprigs, and lemon wedges. Serve with a warm loaf of Italian bread. Enjoy!