This light and fresh pasta recipe is a favorite of ours when fresh corn is in season. If you don’t have fresh corn on the cob available, use frozen corn on the cob from the store.
Ingredients
- 1 pound bucatini (or any long pasta like spaghetti or linguine)
- 1 pound littleneck clams, *Follow the cleaning directions in the notes
- 4 cloves garlic, chopped
- 2 corn cobs, kernels removed and cobs reserved
- 4 tablespoons of butter
- 3/4 cup dry white wine
- 1/3 cup chicken broth
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt (plus more to taste)
- 1/2 teaspoon fresh black pepper (plus more to taste)
- 1/4 cup chopped parsley
- Pinch of crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
Instructions
- Cook the pasta in a large pot of salted water a couple minutes short of the cooking time on the package.
- When the pasta is done, reserve a cup of the water and then drain.
- In the same pot, add the butter over medium-low heat, then add the garlic. Cook for 1 minute, stirring so it doesn’t burn, then add in the corn kernels and cobs, the clams (carefully so the shells don’t break), wine, chicken broth, salt and pepper and bring to a boil.
- Turn the heat down to a simmer and cover the pot to steam the clams, about 8-10 minutes. If all the clams aren’t opened, stir and cover for another minute or two, then discard any clams that haven’t opened.
- Remove the cobs from the pot (scraping them down for more corn flavor – see note*) add the cooked bucatini and stir to coat the pasta in the sauce. Taste and more seasoning if needed. If you like more sauce on your pasta you can add a little of the reserved starchy pasta water, otherwise you can discard the reserved water. Add the crushed red pepper flakes if using.
- Garnish with chopped parsley and serve. Although it’s not traditional for seafood and pasta, we like to add grated parmesan cheese too!
Recipe Notes
Washing the Clams: First wash the clams on the outside with a clean scrub brush, the one that you use to clean your potatoes or scrub your vegetables will work fine. After the clams are scrubbed on the outside, we need to clean them on the inside! Place the clams in a large bowl of cold water and let them soak for 20 minutes. You can add salt or cornmeal to the bowl to help make the clams purge the sand inside.
After 20 minutes, left the clams out of the bowl (don’t dump the bowl out) and run them under water again, cleaning any sand off on the outside of the shells. Place the clams in another, clean bowl of water (no salt or cornmeal this time) and let them sit another 20 minutes. Again, life the clams out o the bowl and ash them off under cold water.
To add even more flavor to the sauce: after the corn cobs have steamed in the pot, scrape them down with a butter knife right into the pot. The sauce will be infused with fresh corn flavor!
- Category: DInner
- Method: Stove top
- Cuisine: American
