Japanese Style Linguine with Clams

This is a "laterpost" (haha, instead of latergram 🤣) that I had started writing last year when the hubby and I went clamming for the first time and got a little over 2 dozen clams! Life got in the way and I completely forgot to publish it, but now that I am living in Illinois and it's hard to find "fresh" seafood, I find myself really missing the days we went crabbing and clamming in New Jersey.

It was such a fun time and also a bit of a workout--who knew raking for clams would be so tiring! My muscles were so sore the next day, but I didn't feel tired at all while digging! (Maybe that's the best kind of workout? Hahaha) We dug for clams in the shallows of New Jersey's Barnegat Bay. The water is relatively clear in the shallows and we used little gardening rakes from Home Depot. You basically rake through the sand and if you hit something, you dig it out with your hands! Sometimes it might be a rock, but if you're lucky, you get a clam! It's really a hit and miss but it's so exciting to find them, especially if you find a huge one! After the first time we went, we fell in love with clamming and went back a couple more times--and would come back with upwards of 60+ clams! They were always so sweet and fresh, and I would make dishes like stuffed clams, pasta with clams, steamed clams in wine sauce, or clam chowder with the big clams. 💗💗💗

Clamming was also a great to be away from our phones for a few hours and spend some quality time together. My family never understood why we liked to go catch our own crabs and I'm sure it's the same when it comes to clamming—they always say, "Why don't you just go buy them from the market? Less work!" But there's something that is just so satisfying and fun to be able to cook the food that you hunt for yourself. (For me, only seafood though, I could never hunt mammals in the wild like deer. To each their own I guess!) 😁

Once we started eating, we removed the shells and mixed the pasta with the clam meat ?

We purged the clams overnight to get rid of the sand and then enjoyed them as linguine with white wine clam sauce! Nothing like cooking your own catch! This recipe is a Japanese style recipe based on the Italian clams with white wine sauce over linguine. Of course you can always do the original Italian version, but in our house, I always like to put a little Asian spin on things 😎 Instead of white wine, I use Japanese sake and topped it with nori furikake (seaweed seasoning typically used for white rice). I found the Japanese sake to add an inherent sweetness to the dish that regular white wine doesn't provide, which also enhanced the sweet, fresh clam flavor. I also found that the clams had plenty of their own natural salty flavor (as did the bacon) and that I didn't need to add much salt if at all to the dish when cooking!

I hope that one day we can go back and go clamming and crabbing again 💗 I hope you get a chance to as well, and if not, at least enjoy this yummy clams and linguine dish 😊

JAPANESE STYLE LINGUINE WITH CLAMS
Makes 2 servings

INGREDIENTS

• 2 dozen clams
• 1 cup Japanese sake or dry white wine (avoid cooking wines as they can be salty)
• 1/4 cup parsley (chopped)
• 3 shallots or 1/4 onion
• 6 cloves garlic (chopped or sliced)
• 1 lb pasta
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 3 strips of bacon or pancetta, chopped into small pieces
• 1 tsp red pepper flakes
• salt (as needed, taste as you go)
• black pepper (as needed)
• seaweed furikake (optional)
• 1/4 lemon wedge (optional)

DIRECTIONS

1. Scrub the clams clean with a stiff brush and rinse under cold running water. Then, purge the clams of sand for at least 1 hour (we let them purge overnight)--this is an important step because you don't want to eat gritty clams! Add 1/3 cup salt to 1 gallon water and let the clams sit in it overnight to get rid of all the sand. Never let them sit only in fresh water because it will kill the clams!
2. Cook the pasta according to the package instructions, usually about 8 minutes. Drain and reserve about 1/4 cup water to use for cooking later.
3. Cook the chopped bacon to render the fat, but don't let it get overly crisp. Remove the bacon and cook the shallots (or onions) until translucent. Add the garlic, clams, red pepper flakes and Japanese sake and simmer for 6-8 minutes or until all the clams are open. Discard any clams that didn't open.
4. Add the pasta to the pan of clams and add white wine, olive oil, mix well, season as needed with salt and pepper (taste as you go). If you want the sauce to thicken, add some of the reserved pasta cooking liquid. Let it cook until the pasta is al dente and has absorbed some of the liquid, then serve.
5. Garnish with fresh chopped parsley and seaweed furikake (a seaweed topping usually put on rice) and enjoy!

Until next time,
​Jenny

If you love noodles and pasta as much as I do, be sure to check out some of my other favorite noodle recipes, like:
​Air Fryer Beef Chow Mein
Dan Dan Noodles
Lobster Garlic Noodles
Braised Beef Noodle Soup
Korean Jap Chae Noodles
Handmade Noodles
Shrimp Cheung Fun