Ingredients:

2 tablespoons plus 2/3 cup olive oil

1 Cup White Wine

1-2 Lemons 

1 Cup Chicken Broth or Clam Juice 

8 whole cloves garlic, peeled

3 heaping tablespoons minced garlic

1/2 cup thinly sliced garlic

24 large cherrystone clams (or whatever you can find, steam and chop)

12 ounces linguine

3 Teaspoons red pepper

4 teaspoons finely minced parsley

1 Leek (whites only)

1 cup water

1 Shallot 

One of my all-time favorites and a must-know recipe if you live on Long Island.  My kids were at the beach and brought these home.  Typically, when I get clams at the store, I’ll get little necks.  This batch that they brought home was mixed sizes, so I just steamed them all together and chopped them up — can’t get any fresher than that. It was one of the best batches I’ve ever made. Just make sure you purge the clams and clean them well.

Start by steaming clams open with half the olive oil, red pepper, garlic, shallot, white wine and a little bit of water.  Once they open, set them aside to cool off.  Once all opened, remove clams and chop reserving all the that great juice.  

Strain the cooking liquid slowly leaving any sand at the bottom of pot.  You are going to want to use that juice!

Set aside and allow chopped clams to sit in that great juice.  

Next start to par cook some dried linguine.  You’ll want to cook it halfway through then finish cooking in the clam liquid.  

In Dutch oven, add rest of olive oil, garlic, leeks, and shallots.  Cook till translucent, then add wine, clam or chicken broth, and let cook through.  Then add juice from steaming the clams. 

Add Par cooked pasta and cook pasta till al dente.  Once al dente add parsley, clams and juice of one lemon.  Serve in bowls.  You won’t be disappointed. Bon appetite!