Linguini and Clam Sauce Recipe

This week's Foodie Friday feature is fast comfort food for any time of the year.

Linguini and Clam Sauce (prep time: 20 minutes)

1 box linguini (whole wheat or regular)

2 C. cooked clam meat, roughly diced or canned

2 C. clam juice (you can make your own if you save the liquid from steaming the clams)

½ yellow onion, diced

½ C. each finely diced carrot and celery (*optional)

2 Tb. torn fresh basil leaves or dried

3 cloves of garlic (or more if you like), diced

2 Tb. olive oil

Boil well-salted water in a large pot for the linguini. While cooking the pasta until just before it reached al-dente, head the olive oil in a sauté pan and cook the onion, carrot, celery and garlic until tender. Add the clam juice and bring to a fast simmer.  Allow broth to reduce by at least half and stir in clams to warm. Spoon a little of the pasta water into the sauce then stir in the drained pasta to finish cooking in the sauce. Salt to taste.

Garnish with chopped parsley for color and serve with bread.

*I included the diced carrot and celery since they were in my steaming liquid to add extra flavor to the clams, so they naturally went into the sauce for the pasta.