Linguine with White Clam Sauce

Linguine with White Clam Sauce is simple, fresh and delicious – as well as budget-friendly! We’re sharing all of our tips and tricks so you can make this quick and easy Italian dish at home!

Restaurant-Quality Linguine with Clams

Linguine with White Clam Sauce is a quintessential Northern Italian dish. Your dinner guests will think that they are eating at a restaurant in Naples or Rome – but it will be our little secret that this classic recipe is super simple to make!

Fresh, flavorful ingredients play a starring role in the finished dish – so if at all possible, you’ll want to use fresh littleneck clams in this recipe. Littlenecks are smaller-sized clams, not very expensive, and often readily available at most supermarkets. Don’t worry, we give you options below if you can’t find fresh clams.

• This dish comes together quickly and easily – in about as much time as it takes to cook the pasta.
• The flavors are AMAZING! Your dinner guests will feel like they are eating at a fine northern Italian restaurant.

• Linguine – While any strand-like pasta can be used, linguine is traditional for this dish. The sauce clings to the wide sturdy strands, and it makes for a filling dish even with the light but flavorful amount of seafood in each serving.
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Fresh Garlic – Fresh garlic cloves are a must for this recipe. Don’t be tempted to use jarred minced garlic…the flavor won’t be the same.
• Red Pepper Flakes – Just a pinch is used and it adds a gentle, zesty heat (nothing overly spicy).
• Anchovy Fillets – Please don’t leave the anchovies out! They cook down in the sauce so you won’t even know they are there, and they add a fantastic salty flavor. Anchovy paste can also be swapped in (see FAQ’s below).
• Dry Oregano
• Littleneck Clams – You’ll need three pounds of fresh littleneck clams (2 1/2 dozen or so) for this recipe. Most supermarket fish departments sell them – but definitely check for freshness. If you can’t find littlenecks, fresh, frozen, or canned chopped clams are fine to use, along with an 8-ounce bottle of clam juice. (See the Notes section at the bottom of our recipe card for more details.)
• White Wine
• Fresh Italian Flat-Leaf Parsley
• Parmesan Cheese – Note that adding Parmesan cheese is NOT traditional, so feel free to leave it out. But we liked the additional flavor.

Never cooked with Littleneck Clams before?

Here’s a great online article from a fellow food blogger with lots of tips and tricks for selecting, buying, cleaning, and cooking with littlenecks.

1. Follow these instructions to clean your clams.
2. Cook the linguine in a large pot of water.
3. Sauté garlic and red pepper flakes in extra virgin olive oil in a large skillet.
4. Add anchovies and sauté until they disintegrate in the oil.
5. Add oregano, white wine, and the fresh littleneck clams to the pan. Simmer until the shells start to open.  Here’s a very important step: Some of the clam shells will cook and open sooner than others in the pan. Remove the opened clams to a bowl off the heat as they open, so they don’t overcook and become rubbery.
6. By this point, your linguine should be just shy of the al dente stage – still a little chewy. Using tongs, transfer the linguine directly from the pot to the skillet with the white clam sauce to simmer for a few minutes until the pasta finishes cooking. Don’t worry about draining and rinsing the pasta – the starch from the cooked pasta helps thicken the white clam sauce as it simmers. (Feel free to add a little more of the pasta water if necessary to create a looser sauce.)
7. Add half of the chopped parsley and cheese to the skillet and stir to mix into the sauce as the pasta finishes cooking.
8. Pour in the bowl of clams (shell on or shell off – see serving suggestion below) and any juice that collected in the bowl.
9. Stir one more time, then drizzle some olive oil over the top and sprinkle with the last of the cheese and chopped parsley.
10. Serve immediately with some crusty garlic bread on the side.

• Can I make Linguine with White Clam Sauce ahead of time? This is a dish that should be served freshly made so the clams are tender and their most flavorful.
• If I’m swapping in anchovy paste for the anchovy fillets, how much should I use? The general rule of thumb is 1 anchovy fillet = 1/2 teaspoon of anchovy paste. So – in this recipe – you’ll use 2 teaspoons of the paste in place of the 4 fillets.
• How do I store any leftovers? Store refrigerated in a container for up to two days. Note that the pasta will probably absorb much of the sauce as it sits.
• How do I reheat leftovers? Gently reheat in the microwave, being careful not to overcook the clams – they will get tough and rubbery if overcooked.

Our Linguine with White Clam recipe originally appeared on A Family Feast in October 2017. We’ve updated the post but the delicious 5-star recipe remains the same.

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