When our friends Kait and Luke got married in Lake Como in Italy, a wave of South Carolinians descended on a few of the small villages on the lake. Everyone took to Vongole and it was a staple at most of the meals. When we all got back to Sullivan’s Island we realized that no one makes it in Charleston. So we had to make it for ourselves and made a variation of the traditional recipe with a revved up the flavor profile.
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 16 cloves of peeked garlic
- 8 sprigs of thyme
- 1 stick of unsalted butter and two extra tablespoons, separated
- 6 shallots, thinly sliced
- 1 bottle Sauvignon blanc
- 60 or so cockles or littleneck, left in ice water with a cup of flour then rinsed
- 2 12 ounce boxes of bucatini
- 1 cup basil leaves, cut into this strips
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
Making It
- Add the clams to a large bowl of cold water with 1/2 cup of flour whisked in, stir every 15 minutes, it will get the sand out
- In a large dutch over, heat the olive oil and 8 teaspoons of butter over medium-high heat, add the thyme, red pepper flakes, shallots and garlic, sauce for 3-4 minutes
- Add the bottle of wine and bring to a boil, add clams and cover for 7 minutes, start to remove the clams when they fully open, set aside in a bowl, shell half the clams and the remaining to stay in shell
- At the same time have a well salted pot of water with a rolling boil, throuw the bucatini in and cook for 4 minutes short of its recommended cooking time, when all the clams are out of the pot, add the bucatini into the slam sauce to finish it off, strain and mix in a bowl with two tablespoon of butter, basil and season to taste, plate 6 bowls of the pasta and divide the shelled and clams still in the shell evenly
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