members recipes

Ingredients
1 can whole baby clams 142 g drained but reserve juice
300 g shell pasta
8-10 cremini mushrooms cut in half then sliced thin
1 dried chile
2 large cloves garlic minced
3 good oil packed anchovy fillets finely minced
1 cup/250 ml tomato passata/strained tomato sauce
1/2 to 1/3 of a small onion finely minced
3-4 tablespoons olive oil
salt kosher or fluer de sel preferably
fresh cracked black pepper

Method
Add the sliced mushrooms to a saucepan on medium heat and sprinkle with a small amount of salt . once they started to sweat out add the reserverd clam juice and let simmer til the liquid is almost gone.

bring 3.5 to 4 liters of well salted water to a boil in a large pot.. drop the shell pasta in and stir and cook for approx 8mins. This will be slightly undercooked but the pasta will then be added to the sauce and finish cooking in the pan to a nice al dente

In a large frypan ( because the pasta will be added in later) at med low heat add the olive oil and drop the minced garlic, onion, and anchovy and the whole dried chili in the pan ( if you want only a little heat leave whole and remove just before adding clams. if not crush it up )

sautee for 4 or 5 mins to let the oil infuse with all the flavours and the onions get translucent.

add the drained clams and the sauteed mushrooms and sautee for a 1-2 mins ..

add the passata and stir together well .. let simmer for approx 2 mins..

Add the well drain pasta to the sauce and cookand stir for 1-2 mins til the sauce coats the shells nicely and the clams and mushrooms are sticking nicely to the inside and outside of the pasta.

when plating drizzle a small amount of extra virgin olive oil over the pasta in fine threads.. Salt and pepper to taste .

*You could add minced fresh parsley and a splash of a nice white wine to this but since I don't have either right now I didn't :) also you could top it with Parm if you want but I kept this a seafood separated from dairy type of dish *