Clam Fettuccine with Walnut-Basil Pesto
People ask me all the time if I learned to cook from my mom or dad... I learned a lifetime's worth of things from my parents but cooking was not one of them! My mom is a self-proclaimed food hater and with the exception of gorging on seafood at the beach, my dad is a meat-and-potatoes guy to the core. My earliest connection to real, honest food was watching my Pappaw cook. He used to fry us 'snotty' eggs and bologna (the real kind, not the Oscar Meyer version!) for breakfast and he makes the best mashed potatoes in the world. I would watch him sit over the sink and peel a hundred potatoes like he was still cooking for the entire fire house. Him and his sister-in-law taught me how to snap green beans and we can talk for hours about endless combinations of charcuterie and cheese. That's where I get it, this passion for cooking slowly and deliberatley, from the heart and with an incredible drive to feed people food that will make them FEEL more than taste.
Now, what does this have to do with Clam Fettuccine? Everything. Pappaw makes Clam Spaghetti and it's my Dad and I's absolute favorite thing (any my mom's worst nightmare!). Full disclosure - he used can clams and dried pasta but somehow, like everything he makes, it tasted like it took him 12 hours. It's the most comforting food in the world to me, it tastes like home.
After I went to Italy, I couldn't wait to tell him EVERYTHING we ate, what I learned, what I was influenced by... he ate every word like he was there with me at every meal. Our drool-worthy conversations about food are unmatched - even my Dad can't keep up with the rabbit holes we go down. So, I told Pappaw about being able to eat flour in Italy and he couldn't believe it - he's seen me get glutened and how painful it is. So we discussed that for a while but nevertheless we were both happy I could enjoy all of the pasta, pizza, calzones, tiramisu, etc and most importantly that I found some imported, unbleached and no additive flour I could use HERE to make my own italian staples!
Naturally, the first order of business with this newfound knowledge (and flour) was to make Clam Spaghetti. I decided on fettuccine because I wanted a little wider of a noodle for the pesto and it was absolutley perfect. I had my New England bff pick out the best Cherrystone Clams and I made a walnut pesto with fresh picked basil and peccorino straight from the mother land. ;)
I took a bite and immediately sent a picture to my Dad (Pappaw still refuses to text) and told him I found my legacy dish - the dish I learned from my grandather that I'd pass on and hope lives forever down the line. For some people its sauce, lasanga... maybe even a dessert but this is it for me, not just the recipe but the memories, the feeling and the story.
SERVING SIZE: 4-6
PREP TIME: 1.5 HOURS
COOK TIME: 15 MINUTES
INGREDIENTS:
Pasta-
3.5 cups "00" Flour (unbleached, no additives- I use this)
4 Large Brown Eggs (cagefree, organic)
1 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Pesto-
2 cups Fresh Basil (rough chopped)
1 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/2 cup Pecorino Romano (grated)
3/4 cup Walnuts
S+P
pinch of Chili Flakes
Clams-
50 Cherry Stone or Little Neck Clams
3 tbsp Butter
1 cup White Wine (or water)
RECIPE:
First make the pasta* because it will need to rest for an hour before you roll it out. If you're using dried pasta, you can skip this part altogehter. In an extra large bowl, pour the flour into a moutain in the base of the bowl. Use your fist to form a hole in the middle, like a volcano. In a separate bowl, whisk together the 4 eggs and olive oil. Pour the egg/oil mixture into the hole in the flour and use your hands to pull flour up from the base, into the hole to combine with the eggs. Slowly form a shaggy dough, incorporating as much of the loose flour as you can. Once the dough is pliable enough to pick up, lay on a floured surface. If the dough is super dry, rub a little EVOO on your hands before you start to knead. Knead the dough for about 5 minutes until it is elastic and a little sticky. A good test is pressing your thumb print into the dough and if it bounces back right away, it's ready. Next, wrap the dough tightly in plastic and let it rest at room temperature for an hour (up to 2 hours if you want).
While you let the dough rest, set up your pesto. Don't make it just yet, you don't want it to seperate. Go ahead and put all of the ingredients in a blender and set the oil in a measuring cup with a pour spout beside the blender so you can quickly make the pesto right before you're ready to serve.
After an hour, you're ready to make the pasta. Before you begin, get a large stock pot of water on the stove, heavily salted. Bring that to a boil while you're making the pasta noodles.
To make the pasta - divde the dough into 4 pieces, covering all the pieces you are not working with so they don't get too dry. Roll out the piece of dough into an oblong, flat pankcake shape about the width of a pencil. Roll through the pasta machine on the lowest setting (0 or 1). If it is too thick, roll out until it's just thin enough to fit through. After you roll it through once, lay flat horizontally and fold the two ends inward like a pamphlet and flip over so the folds are touching the counter surface. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough out flat again and send through the machine 2 more times at the 0 setting. Move through the settings, one by one, rolling through twice at each number until you reach 6 or 7. Roll once through the final number. The pasta sheet will be very long by now, lay flat on the counter and fold in half, cutting the dough at the crease. Send each piece through the attachment to cut into the noodle shape. Hand or lay flat while you finish the rest of the dough.
Once the pasta is all made, start your clams before you cook the pasta. The pasta only cooks for 2 minutes so you want to do this at the very last minute, along with making the pesto.
Melt the butter into the wine or water in a large, deep saute pan. Bring the liquid up to a simmer or low boil and dump in the clams. Place a lid on the pan and cook until the clams all pop open. There may be a few that don't open, discard those. Never pry open a clam, if it doesn't open you shouldn't eat it.
When the clams begin to pop, drop the noodles into the pot of water and stir to avoid tanglinng the noodles. Cook for 2 minutes, trust me, they don't need to cook longer than this!
While the noodles cook, pulse the ingredients in the blender and through the opening in the lid, slowly pour in the olive oil until you have a pastey pesto. Turn off the heat for the pasta and ladle out 1-2 ladles of pasta water into the pesto and blend. Start with 1 and if you like it a little thinner, add more.
Finally, strain the pasta and dump into a large bowl. Pop out the clams from the shells using a fork and incorporate into the pasta. Pour in the pesto sauce and use two wooden spoons to combine (using a fork or metal tool might tear the pasta so wooden or plastic is best). Voila - you have a DELICIOUS pasta dish made compleley from scratch! Happy Eating!
*You will need a hand crank pasta machine for this with either a fettuccine or spaghetti noodle attachment.