Just yesterday we found fresh clams from the South Carolina coast; the guy who sells local shrimp at the all-local farmers’ market had brought up clams and softshell crabs, but he was out of the crabs by the time we got to him. The clams were lovely -– I made a pasta sauce of local chard, bacon, and clams that was okay-tasting but so, so beautiful to look at.
Anywhere, here’s what you do when you don’t have fresh local clams. I made this up recently and will make it again.
Cook slowly in 1 T olive oil over medium-low heat:
- 1 or 2 yellow, orange, or red peppers, sliced
- Several cloves garlic, sliced
When sweet and browned, add:
- 1 pint cherry tomatoes, some halved, or other tomatoes
- 5 saffron threads
- 1 bay leaf
Cook down slightly. Add and simmer, tasting for proper salting:
- ½ cup dry white wine
- Juice from two cans of clams (tuna can-sized)
- Red pepper flakes
- Pepper and salt to taste
Stir in clams from the cans at the end. Add parsley if you have it. Serve over pasta.
We also had artichokes. In the past I’ve served them the way you did when I was a kid, stem down. But the ones I bought had several inches of beautiful stem, and I read that in Europe they’re sometimes served the other way, stem up. So I did that. They were tasty.
1 comment:
I'm going to try artichockes this way. My hearts have been getting too mushy.
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