CSA Summer Challenge: Spaghetti with Clams

Here's this week's haul from our CSA Share:

Cabbage
Raddicio
Italian parsley
Green Beans
Beets/Raddishes
Onions

I'm kind of cheating on the recipe this week.  Although I am using one of these ingredients, does parsley really count?  It has no flavor and isn't really anything.  To be fair it's about the only thing I felt like experimenting with this week.  Green beans?  We ate them all raw soon after this picture was taken.  Onions?  Meh.  Raddicio?  Yuck.  That's the red stuff most people push off of their salad when they buy the big bag from the grocery store.  With good reason!  My husband wants to try to make cole slaw with it... but it will likely end up rotting down in my vegetable drawer.

On to the recipe!

INGREDIENTS


1 lb. pasta
3 TBS olive oil
3 TBS minced garlic, or 3 cloves, minced
1/4 cup dry white wine
red chili flakes- to taste
2 cans (6.5 oz) chopped clams
2 dozen fresh little neck clams
1/2 cup fresh parsley
salt and pepper, to taste

DIRECTIONS

Just a note on fresh clams- you can do this recipe without them if you choose.  If you are using fresh clams, you'll want to soak them in cold water for at least an hour before you need them.  This will help get some of the sand out.  You'll also want to scrub them since you'll be using the shells and all in your sauce.

Bring a large pot of water to boil.  Season generously with salt.  Ad the pasta, and cook until al dente.

While the pasta is cooking, work on the sauce.  Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat.  Add the garlic and cook 1-2 minutes.  Add the wine and reduce by half.  Add the broth from the clams into the pan, setting aside the clams for later.  Add in the chili flakes and all of the little neck clams.  Cover and steam clams until they open.  Discard any clams that do not open.

Add in the reserved clams as well as the parsley.  Add the pasta to the skillet and mix well.  Season to taste with salt and pepper. 

VERDICT

This was so easy... and to tasty!  I altered the original recipe to add the fresh clams, so I'm pretty sure you can skip them if you're trying to make this on the cheap. 

Adapted from:  Gallo Family Vineyards (I'm pretty sure this was another magazine ad to promote wine!)