The flat shape of linguine (“little tongues,” in Italian) provides the perfect vehicle to soak up this scrumptious sauce. Served with a tossed green salad and crunchy Francese bread, the dish makes for a surprisingly easy meal.
Mario prefers the old-school method of dumping the cooked clams back into the pot along with the pasta, but for a more elegant presentation, you can plate the linguine first and then arrange the clams around the edge of the bowls.
Any type of clams will work for this dish, but the hard shell varieties-such as Littleneck, Manila, or Cherry Stones have a lot less grit and, if store-bought, should already be cleaned and flushed of sand. Discard any clams that have cracked shells, are open and won’t close within a couple minutes after being tapped on the kitchen counter.
This recipe is excerpted from Death al Fresco: A Sally Solari Mystery.