Quick and easy spaghetti pasta with clam sauce made with chopped clams, clam juice, white wine, olive oil, and garlic
Busy moms, I applaud you! Actually, I salute you. I have no idea how you do it. I am neither a mother nor gifted with innate organizational skills.
My own mother had six children in eight years, and we ate dinner with the family every night (couldn’t afford to go out!). When I ask her how she did it, she just shrugs and says she had a lot of energy back then.
It’s easy and takes about 30 minutes depending on how fast you can boil a pot of water on your stovetop.
The recipe uses canned chopped clams, the canned clam juice, some olive oil, white wine, lemon zest, parsley, and lots of garlic to make the sauce.
You prepare the ingredients while the water for the pasta is boiling, and you prepare the sauce while the spaghetti is cooking. Mix everything together to serve.
If you want to go a little more fancy, add some chopped olives or marinated artichoke hearts at the end.
Spaghetti with mussels
Almost all of the alcohol in this recipe evaporates from the wine as it cooks, leaving only the flavor behind. If you want to replace the wine with something else, you can just add water with a teaspoon or two of lemon juice.
Do all the prep work while the water comes to a boil.
ingredients
-
8th ounces spaghetti (can use up to 3/4 lb pasta if needed)
-
Salt for pasta water
-
3 tablespoon Extra virgin olive oil
-
3 to 4 cloves garlicchopped (approx. 1 heaped tablespoon)
-
prize red chilli flakes
-
2 (6th–Ounce) canned chopped clams, including the liquid
-
1/2 Cup dry White wine
-
1 teaspoon Lemon peel
-
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
-
Fresh ground black pepper taste
method
-
Heat salted water, prepare:
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil (1 tablespoon of salt to 2 liters of water). While the water is heating, prepare the garlic, lemon zest and parsley.
-
Cook spaghetti:
Add the spaghetti to the boiling water and set your timer 2 minutes less than the recommended time (so you can be sure you’re cooking the pasta al dente).
Cook the spaghetti uncovered in boiling water. While the spaghetti is cooking, prepare the clam sauce.
-
Sweat the garlic and chilli flakes:
Heat 3 tbsp olive oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Add the chopped garlic and red chilli flakes. Cook for 30 seconds to a minute, until the garlic is just on the edge of browning.
-
Add wine, mussel juice, reduce:
Pour the white wine into the pan. Open the mussel cans and squeeze the mussel juice from the cans into the pan as well.
Increase the temperature to high and let the sauce come to a boil. The sauce will reduce as the spaghetti cooks. (Set the pan on the highest stovetop over high heat for faster sauce reduction.)
-
Add chopped mussels, parsley, lemon zest:
At about the same time that the spaghetti is done cooking, the sauce should be reduced by about two-thirds. There should be about 1/4 to 1/3 cup of liquid left in the pan.
Add the chopped mussels and return to a simmer. Then stir in the chopped parsley and lemon zest.
-
Toss cooked spaghetti with the mussel sauce:
When the pasta is al dente (cooked but still a bit firm when bite), drain and place in a serving bowl. Pour the sauce over the spaghetti and mix. Sprinkle with freshly ground black pepper to taste.
Serve with a little more fresh parsley and sprinkle on top. Serve immediately.
| nutritional information (per serving) | |
|---|---|
| 329 | calories |
| 12g | Fat |
| 25g | carbohydrates |
| 24g | protein |
