Getting home, I was excited to make clams. They are an ingredient that I've never prepared before. But, I'm not quite at the point in my cooking where I can look at an ingredient, figure out how to cook it, and make something delicious. I'm still a little apprehensive about putting together something that doesn't taste that great, and I still haven't fully figured out how to meld flavors, even though I know the flavors that I like to work with and try and incorporate. So, when I was ready to make the clams, I still needed to seek out a recipe. Naturally the first place I went was FoodNetwork.com. I was sorting through various recipes, looking at things like paella and cioppino (too many other ingredients needed), and pasta dishes (too heavy for a nice late spring evening). Then I stumbled across a recipe by Tyler Florence for Orecchiette with Broccoli Rabe, Clams and Sweet Italian Sausage. I was sold! I had all of the ingredients at home except for the sausage which I could grab on the way home.
The recipe was one that was quite easy and quite quick, perfect for the busy professional (I type this phrase a lot, but that's because it's the reality of our lifestyle, and I'm sure many others out there). It starts by putting on a pot of salted water for the pasta. Then you make mini meatballs out of the sausage and heat them up until they are browned on each side. After removing them to the side, simply add a little bit of fresh garlic, red pepper and thyme to the remaining oil. Once those ingredients start to release their aroma, throw in the white wine and clams, put a lid on top, and let them steam for about 10 minutes or so.
One thing to note is that it is important to scrub the outside of the clams. Since these were farm raised clams, they were pretty clean on the inside and did not need to be placed in a bucket of water to clean. However, there was plenty of sand and grit on the outside that needed to be removed so it wouldn't wind up in the final dish.
While the clams are steaming, the pasta can be thrown in the water since it takes about 7-8 minutes to get to a nice al dente level of doneness. If I was doing broccoli rabe, I would add it toward the end to finish. However, I didn't have broccoli rabe, and forgot to look at the store. What I did have was some very thin asparagus. I sauteed it in a little olive oil with some salt and pepper and a table spoon of butter. Then, when the pasta was done, I added it to the pan with the asparagus, as well as the sausage meatballs to finish cooking them through. Then I returned to the clams. They had all steamed open nicely. I then added a bit of butter and a little bit of my good, flavorful olive oil to make a little bit of a sauce. All of this was poured over the pasta and asparagus mixture and mixed up. I finished by putting it all in a bowl, and shredding some nice parmesan cheese over the top of it.
The finished product was good. I was told that the clams were cooked very well and were very delicious, which was definitely an accomplishment! However, the rest was a bit oversalted, which I think owed to me not fully paying attention to all of the ingredients I used. Not only did I salt the water for the pasta, I added salt and pepper to the asparagus, as well as salted butter. Then I finished the white wine sauce with salted butter as well; not to mention the salt from the pork sausage. All of this ended up being just a bit too overwhelming. The biggest thing I think would be to reduce the amount of salt that I added to the water, as as well as making sure I use unsalted and not the sweet cream butter when I incorporate it into the recipe. But, in the end, I gained some confidence in my ability to cook clams, and realized that pork is a good pairing for it, especially sausage. Next time I think I will be able to improvise and experiment a little bit more. Thank you Tyler Florence for helping me put together a great dinner and gaining some confidence in my ability to cook clams!
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Looks delicious!
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