2011-02-23

Linguine with Chorizo + Clams



Hey look- it's a post!

I have lots of recipes to update with...



See, I'm not lying!

It's just hard to spend that many more hours at the computer. I guess you could say I'm suffering from a motivation problem. Even worse, most of my winter recipes are now out-of-season; I was just bemoaning the end of Kale.

Mourning the passing of kale from my farm box- the one food I'd be happy eating every meal.7:42 PM Feb 11th via Echofon



Which at least half my winter recipes have used, dammit.

We usually fancy it up for Christmas, but this (technically last) year I didn't have a damn thing planned for our usual romantic feast. Lucky for me, there's almost nothing seasonal in the recipe, so I can post it 2+ months after the fact, and not feel like anyone reading this would need to wait a year to try out the recipe.

Really I was just craving clams again (which always seem like a "fancy" special food to me) when I saw chorizo at the store and thought "mmm spicy" and was inspired. I googled around for some recipes using both and found the two below. I had a suspicion it'd be a bit too much flavor, but turned out fantastic!

Though it's not a meal worthy of the tittle "feast" the idea seemed like it needed sharing, so we invited a friend over for some pre-Christmas wine & wii; a good time was had by all.

Linguine with Clams & Chorizo

Linguine with Chorizo + Clams
inspired by Emeril and Smitten Kitchen

  • 1 lb fresh linguine (I used two-color because that's what the store had, but would prefer normal)
  • 1 lb little neck clams, fresh in shells
  • 4.5 oz chorizo, about 1 1/2 sausages
  • 5 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
  • 1/8 tsp saffron threads
  • dry white wine
  • 1/2 cup finely diced yellow onion
  • olive oil
  • chicken broth
  • pinch red pepper flakes
  • juice of 1/2 - 1 lemon
  • handful roughly chopped parsley
  • Parmesan for garnish
  1. in heavy bottomed sauce pan saute chorizo in just a splash of olive oil until it releases its fat
  2. add in garlic, onion and red pepper flakes
  3. when onion is soft and fragrant add a half cup of white wine or broth, use it to scrape up any bits stuck to the pan
  4. add clams to pan
  5. pour in enough, equal parts, chicken broth & white wine (or one or the other) to not quite cover the clams. this will be your sauce for the pasta, so keep in mind how wet or dry you'd like it to be- as long as there's enough liquid for the clams to steam you'll be ok. stir in the saffron threads
  6. cover clams and let them steam in broth
  7. after clams open (discard any who don't) add parsley and lemon juice to broth
  8. distribute pasta, clams and broth evenly between 3-4 bowls, garnish with freshly grates parmesan
  9. serve with a robust red wine and crusty french bread
The process