Marcella Hazan’s recipe for white clam sauce is delicious, but its ergonomics
are punishing. In the text, not one but two other recipes are
incorporated by reference; the second of these recipes itself calls out to an additional recipe, bringing the total number of recipes in play to four. The result is a feeling of rising panic (are the references in fact circular?) as the clams steam and the pan threatens to smoke.
Below is the full recipe, with references interpolated. In the introduction, Marcella credits Cesare Benelli and his “Texan wife, Diane” for a key innovation: reserve the juice of the clams and toss it with slightly undercooked pasta, which then “drinks up all the fresh clam juices, achieving a density and richness of flavor no other version of the dish can match.”
For 4 servings
1 1/2 dozen littleneck clams
5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 large garli cloves, peeled and sliced paper thin
1 1/2 tablespoons chopped parsley
Chopped fresh hot chili pepper, 2 teaspoons, or to taste
1 fresh, ripe, firm plum tomato, cut into 1/2-inch dice with its skin on, but drained of juice and all seeds removed
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 pound dry pasta
6 fresh basil leaves, torn into 2 or 3 pieces
Recommended pasta. Spaghettini, thin spaghetti, takes to clam sauces
more successfully than other shapes. A close enough second is spaghetti.
Note. In Italy, no cookbook or cook will ever advise you to discard any
clams that don’t open while cooking. Clams stay clamped shut because they
are alive. The most reluctant ones to loosen their hold and unclench their
shells are the most vigorously alive of all. When eating them raw on the half
shell, how does anyone know which ones would not have opened in the pot?
The clams you should discard are those that stay open when you handle them
before cooking, because they are dead.
Soak the clams for 5 minutes in a basin or sink filled with cold water. Drain and refill the basin with fresh cold water, leaving in the clams. Vigorously scrub the clams one by one with a very stiff brush. Drain, refill the basin, and repeat the whole scrubbing operation. Do this 2 or 3 more times, always in fresh changes of water, until you see no more sand settling to the bottom of the basin. Discard any that, when handled, don’t clamp shut.
Put the clams in a pan broad enough so they don’t need to be piled up more
than three deep, cover the pan, and turn on the heat to high. Check the clams
frequently, turning them over, and when all the clams have opened up, take
them out of the pan, using a slotted spoon. Try not to stir up the juices in
the pan any more than you must. Detach the clam meat from its shell, and gently
swish each clam in the pan juices to rinse off any sand. Unless they are
exceptionally small, cut them up in two or even three pieces. Put them in a
bowl, pour two tablespoons olive oil over them, cover the bowl tightly with
plastic wrap, and set it aside for later. Do not refrigerate.
Line a strainer with paper towels, and filter the clam juices in the pan
through the paper and into another bowl. Set aside for later.
Choose a skillet or sauté pan broad enough to contain the pasta later. Put
in three tablespoons olive oil and the sliced garlic, and turn on the heat to
medium high. Cook the garlic, stirring it, for just a few seconds, without
letting it become colored, then add the parsley and the chili pepper. Stir once
or twice, and add the diced tomato. Cook the tomato for 1 to 2 minutes,
stirring it from time to time, then add the wine. Simmer the wine for about 20
to 30 seconds, letting it reduce, then turn off the heat.
Cook the pasta in abundant boiling salted water until it is very firm to the
bite, barely short of being fully cooked. When you bite a piece off, it should
feel slightly stiff and the narrowest of chalk-white cores should be showing
in the center of the strand.
Turn the heat on to high under the skillet or sauté pan, drain the pasta
and transfer it immediately to the pan. Add all the filtered clam juice, and
cook, tossing and turning the pasta, until all the juice has evaporated. If the
pasta was not too underdone when you drained it, it should now be perfectly
cooked. Taste it and, in the unlikely event it needs more cooking after the
clam juices have evaporated and been absorbed, add a small amount of water.
As soon as the pasta is done, before you turn the heat off, add the cut-up
clams with all the oil in the bowl and the torn basil leaves, toss in the pan
2 or 3 times, then transfer to a warm platter and serve at once.