Five Point Plan Linguine and Clam Sauce

Alright, listen, this is a quality dish. This is not cafeteria pasta, this is not date-night poser food. This is classic. Linguine’s got that smooth glide, you know? Real clean. And the clam sauce, light, not drowning the noodles, little garlic, little oil, just enough brine to let you know the ocean paid rent. You get the clams in there, not hiding, not overdoing it. They pop, they’re tender, they’re saying, ‘Relax, man, we got this.’ It’s confident food. See, heavy sauce? That’s amateur hour. This dish? This says you know what you’re doing. You order this, people think you travel. You probably don’t…but they think you do. It’s simple, it’s smooth, it works. Kinda like me.

Ingredients

1/4 lb sliced proscuitto
1/2 cup minced shallots
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1 cup white wine
1 dozen fresh littleneck clams or 1 6.5 oz can whole clams and 8 oz bottle of clam juice
1 6.5 oz can chopped clams
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1 lb linguine pasta
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
4-6 leaves fresh basil
1 tbs lemon zest
2 tbs cold butter
Asiago cheese strips for garnishing

Directions

Cook your linguine part way to 2/3 the time of the package instructions and reserve 1 cup cooking liquid.
Slice proscuitto into 1/4 inch strips and place in a large cold saute pan. Heat pan over medium low heat to slowly render the fat out of the proscuitto, about five minutes.
Turn your pan to medium heat and add your shallots, garlic, and red pepper flakes. Cook until shallots are translucent.
If using fresh clams, add them to your saute pan with the white wine and cover. Stream the clams until they all open, discard any the do not open, about 10-12 minutes. Remove clams from the pan and remove clams from their shells, reserve any liquor from the clams and add clams and liquor back to the pan.
If using canned clams, add the white wine and deglaze your pan. Drain the clams from their liquid and add to the pan with the clam juice.
Add the chopped canned clams, drained from their liquid, parsley, partially cooked linguine, and parmesan cheese to the saute pan. Mix to combine and bring to a simmer, 2-3 minutes or until pasta has finished cooking through. Add cooking liquid from linguine as needed.
Once linguine is cooked, cut the cold butter into 1/4 inch cubes and add one at a time, stirring into the pasta until melted to combine, chop and add the basil leaves and lemon zest.
Garnish with clam shells and asiago cheese strips. Serve.