Yield: 2 generous portions

Ingredients:

• 1/2 lb. linguine pasta, cooked al dente, with a portion of the pasta water reserved for the sauce
• 6-8 oz. cooked whole clams
• 1 large vine-ripened tomato, diced
• 3 large garlic cloves, sliced
• 1/2 small white onion, sliced thinly (in what I refer to as half-moon slices)
• 1/4 cup white wine
• 1 small jar of clam juice
• 1 dried Sicilian red chile, seeded and crushed
• 2 tablespoons Italian Seasoning from Merchant Spice Co.’s European Collection (NOTE: Our Sicilian Seasoning would work equally as well in this dish.)
• extra virgin olive oil, as needed
• sea salt, to taste
• a wedge of fresh lemon
• 1/2 cup fresh parsley, minced, for garnish

Preparation:

Sauté the onion, tomato & garlic in a heavy stainless skillet with olive oil until the liquid released by the tomatoes evaporates.  Then add the clams, followed by the clam juice, white wine and approximately 1/4 cup of pasta water (the starches help to naturally thicken your sauce).

As the sauce reduces, gently add the freshly cooked pasta along with the Italian Seasoning, the crushed red chile and sea salt to taste. Continue to simmer the dish until the sauce coats your pasta nicely. Squeeze the fresh lemon over the pasta just before plating.

Serve the pasta, gently swirled onto your plates (a pasta fork works nicely for this), garnished with parsley.

Linguine with clam sauce ~ accompanied by a delightfully lemony Venetian pinot grigio

After the dinner plates were cleared, this inviting scene (a still life, so to speak) on the corner of the slate table remained.

Merchant Spice Co.’s Sicilian Seasoning from the European Collection