Spaghetti with Clams

Last night – was for the first time in years that I cooked my own pasta dinner. I have been so out of the cooking loop for a long loooong time now. And yesterday, when our fish/seafood man called to ask what we want to be delivered – I immediately thought of Clams/Halaan!

And when it was delivered – I was quite shocked to see that they were huge! I was so used to the small clams that were served in restaurants. Nevertheless – I had the whole to day to plan what I wanted to with the clams. Make it into soup or a pasta dish?

I searched the web for recipes – and I found 2 recipes from food tv. One’s from Tyler Florence and the other was from Giada De Laurentiis. I couldn’t decide which one I would use. I was looking at both of them the whole afternoon – tossing from one to the other.

It was just after my yoga practice that I decided to go with Giada’s recipe. I figured – Tyler’s was the better choice – but I’ve never tried anything from Giada – and so I gave her a chance. I was secretly hoping that it would turn out good. And so when I got home at about 8:30 in the evening – I was preparing everything fast. The househelp was nice enough to have chopped the onions and set aside some already chopped garlic (thanks to the Black and Decker Handy Chopper Plus) near the stove.

As I sauteed the onions and garlic, put in the clams and dry white wine – I was getting nervous that the clams were letting out too much water. As I put on the lid – I was praying that the sauce be enough, not too much and not too little! After a few minutes, I took off the lids and my suspicions were right – there was too much water. But the recipe said for me to add 2 tablespoons of diced unsalted butter, to thicken the sauce, and when I did – voila! The sauce thickened slightly. Yey! I then tossed in the al dente cooked spaghetti, a few seconds later – it was ready to eat.

Here is what it looked like last night, I know its messy but – I was HUNGRY!! And oh, and it tasted great by the way.. 🙂