Garlicky, buttery clams with spaghetti and a squeeze of lemon

Garlicky, buttery clams with spaghetti and a squeeze of lemon 🍋

Making you feel like you’re staying at a luxurious boutique hotel and eating on their terrace restaurant overlooking the ocean with a glass of dry white wine 🥂🌊

You’ll need 450g fresh clams, 100-150ml melted butter, 1 or 2 garlic cloves chopped (or more if you like it strong), enough spaghetti for 2 people, bunch of parsley leaves chopped, 1 lemon cut in half and a pinch of salt 🧂

Clean your clams before you cook, even if they’ve been cleaned, doesn’t hurt to clean them twice. Pop them in a bowl of cold tap water covered over all of them, and leave them for 10-20 minutes to spit their sand out. Drain then once done. Boil the water for your pasta and add in the pinch of salt. Put the pasta in to cook. While you boil the pasta, pour your butter into a pan and add in your chopped garlic, sautéing for a few minutes to let the aroma come out of the garlic and mix with the butter. Place your drained clams into the garlic butter pan and cover with a lid. The clams should take about 7-10 minutes to open and steam, and your pasta should be ready at the same time. Once your pasta is ready, drain it and toss in with the opened clams, and sauce they are in. Sprinkle parsley on top and plate with a squeeze of fresh lemon for some zest! You can add cream or grated parmesan or Romano cheese to make this a bit heavier, but with the butter, it’s absolute perfection.

I’ve been really big on cooking with seafood at home since lockdown and as we slowly creep into winter (someone tell me why we can’t have a smidge more light past 4pm?) I’m totally not going to stop — and clams have to be my favourite to make as they are so easy to cook, yet bring a salty and tender flavour to a somewhat simple pasta dish!