I grew up with this recipe served quite frequently and so I asked my mother how she makes it.   It was pretty much what I guessed – super easy.

There is no red sauce needed for this pasta dish.  In fact the sauce is so simple to make, you can have the whole thing ready by the time the linguine is done boiling.

That is less than 30 minutes!  Come on, who won’t add this into their own recipe box?

Clams and Linguine

My mother still makes this recipe nearly every week for my father.   He loves it and she makes it when she doesn’t feel like cooking.   Hmm… who of us can relate?

Some people will use whole clams with this recipe, but we keep it easy using canned clams.  You can get my detailed recipe for Clams and linguine here.

In a nutshell, start your water and pasta.  Meanwhile, in a sauce pan, saute the garlic in olive oil, add in the clams and juice along with some parsley if you have any.

Let it all simmer while the pasta is cooking and by the time the pasta is done so is your sauce.   Add the pasta into the saucepan and give a good toss.

TIP:  Make sure to keep some of the pasta water on hand – in other words do not drain it all.   If the pasta is too dry, simply add in a few spoonfuls of pasta water and stir.

You do not want to use regular water if you can help it, because it might dilute the flavor.  Using the pasta water has the flavor of the pasta already so it blends much better.

Serve warm and top with some grated cheese.

Like it spicy?

Add in an dash of red pepper flakes either when serving or when you are sauteing the garlic.   It is up to you.   I personally do not like red pepper flakes so if I were to make it for a number of people I’d just put the shaker on the table.

So what would you serve with this recipe?   How about some fresh bread such as garlic bread, a nice salad, and some Italian green beans?   I use that combo quite a bit in my Italian cooking.

Do you have a favorite way of making this recipe?  Just let me know I’d love to hear it!

Liz
www.simpleitaliancooking.com
Simple Italian Recipes

A microplane is a type of grater.  They are made of stainless steel and have “micro” fine holes for grating a variety of foods from Italian cheeses to lemon peels and whole nutmeg.

Some microplanes are designed for coarser grating, so not all of them are the same.

When you use it for cheese, the cheese will be extremely fine and delicate, meaning it will also melt quickly.   If serving a pasta meal, I would suggest letting everyone grate their own cheese, or have a bowl filled with the cheese so everyone can spoon out the amount they want.

In Cleveland, OH, there is a store called Gallucci’s.  My husband’s family goes their each week to get fresh Italian goodies.

Last year we went and now I’m a complete fan of their grated Romano cheese.  Why?  Because it is grated so fine, and I haven’t been able to find anything like it around where I live.

The best part of these graters – they are quite affordable ranging from $3.00 to $35.00.   Here is a  Microplane which is one of the favorites over at Amazon.  In fact, at the time of this post, it was considered the best selling and had over 300 reviews!

Microplaners can make excellent gifts because they can be used for a variety of cuisines – not just Italian.  That means anyone who cooks can use one.

So whether sprinkling cheese over your clams and linguine, salad, or other pasta recipes, or perhaps grating some lemon zest for a nice dressing – I’m sure you will find many uses for it in your kitchen!

Sincerely,

Liz

www.simpleitaliancooking.com
Easy Italian Recipes

This took less than 15 minutes from start to finish.

1.  Start by filling your pot up with water and bring to a boil and start cooking your pasta.  Use short tubular pasta if you can, or a fettuccine.

2.  Meanwhile, in a frying pan, heat 2 1/2 Tablespoons of olive oil along with 2 or 3 Tablespoons of butter.  Note:  I did not measure, but these are all approximate.

3. Once melted add in about 1 cup of ricotta cheese and 1/4 cup of grated romano cheese and mix well.

4.  Heat over low/medium heat until it is well blended.

5.  When the pasta is done, spoon out the pasta and put into the frying pan.

Why spoon the pasta out without draining?  Because you want a little extra pasta water to transfer over into the frying pan.  This keeps the pasta from drying out.  You might want to keep the extra pasta water set aside incase you need to add more in.

6.  Now mix it all together and serve.  The sauce will not be like an Alfredo, because it has more of a cheese texture.

A few modifications can be made:   If I had some zucchini I would have cooked some up and added those in as well.  That is similar to a recipe from Mario Batali I once read in a newspaper – but not exactly the same.

Pasta with Ricotta

Anyhow, you can use any vegetable.  I was tempted to try some cherry tomatoes, but didn’t have any.   So I sprinkled on some dried basil (yes I have no more fresh basil in my garden).  I can’t say the basil added all that much – perhaps parsley would have been good too.   Options are many obviously.

This recipe is so easy, I hope you try it.  It was a perfect way to use up my extra ricotta from my unsuccessful calzones from the other day!

I’ve included a picture of the image of my wonderful lunch for the day – all under 15 minutes!  The only thing I didn’t make was a nice salad on the side.

Visit my recipe page for more easy Italian recipes.

Liz

www.simpleitaliancooking.com

Any time you make sausage you will need to have sausage casing, ground meat, a mechanism to stuff the sausage, string, and seasonings such as fennel, salt and pepper, red pepper etc.

Some people stuff the casings by hand or by using stuffing tube.   It usually takes more than one person to do this task.  It is not easy work and will take awhile.  I will not get into

Italian Sausage

specifics at this time, for a few reasons.  One is that there is so much to say – it would be too much for a simple post.  I like talking to people who actually stuff their own sausage because they will tell you like it is.  And it isn’t always as easy as the cookbooks make it sound.

If you are using an electric meat grinder to mix all your ingredients it will generally come – or should come with a sausage attachment.  In fact, this is one common reason why people like to own their own meat grinder – to make sausage!

If you own a Kitchen Aid stand mixer you can actually purchase special sausage stuffer attachment kits made specifically for the Kitchen Aid.  Some users have found the sausage attachment to be good for novices who are new to the sausage making world, while others have found the attachments to be messy, time consuming, and not of durable quality.

Let’s talk a bit about the casings.  It is commonly assumed the casings are made of pork.  However, lamb can often be used and I believe there are some synthetic casings as well that you can purchase.  Since I tend to avoid pork products, and lamb is acceptable for me.

There are many cookbooks available which give various recipes and how to techniques for making your own sausage.  If you are an enthusiast, I would take a look at Amazon and see what they offer.

Major Advantage for Making Homemade Sausage

One of the advantages to making your own sausage is you have total control over the quality of the ingredients which you put in.  Where I live, it is hard to find a lot of organic meat products.  Much less organic sausage that does not use pork.  So being able to purchase your own organic meat, grind it in your own meat grinder, purchase your own casings, and season it with your own seasonings without any artificial additives-this is what I’d call real sausage.  This is how it was done in the past and this is how it should be done today.

When making your own sausage make sure to give my sausage and peppers recipe a try.   It’s easy and tastes great!

If you have your own sausage making techniques or advice, feel free to post them here – I’d love to hear.

Sincerely,

Liz
www.simpleItaliancooking.com
Easy Italian Recipes

I’ve been reading about calzones because I’ve lately been into making my own pizza dough.

My husband loves calzones and I would love to be able to make them for him.  I tried it this past weekend and my results looked very promising.

The dough looked good and the filling looked good.  I did a ricotta and spinach filling.

We baked the calzones and were excited to bite into them.

The problem – they had no flavor.   My ricotta spinach pizza recipe has more flavor than this.

I’m asking for help here from those who may know a thing or two about calzones.  What did I do wrong?

My Own Conclusions:

1.  Dough – Regular basic pizza dough should not be used – no matter who says it can.  The dough has to be a really good dough – I don’t have such a recipe yet.  I don’t think it matters how the dough is made.  I used a bread machine, but a food processor like the Cuisinart food and dough mixer would work just as well – or simply make it by hand.

2.  Fillings – It’s not the same as pizzas.   Use a mix of cheeses including mozzarella.  The ricotta and spinach just didn’t carry much weight.  Perhaps I needed more garlic, salt – tomatoes?

3.  Baking – Should I have used an egg wash?   I had spread one calzone with olive oil on top, and the other I baked without olive oil on top.   The difference to me – none.

Is a calzone really as simple as making a homemade pizza and folding it over some fillings?   Based on my experience – No it isn’t.

Liz

SimpleItalianCooking.com