I am a fan of what I call hearty pasta, the manly-man pastas, like bucatini, fetuccine, perciatelli, as opposed to the girly-man pastas, like angel hair. If this sounds misogynistic, I apologize. My wife is the opposite. She prefers small, fine string pasta; and recently she bought home some angel hair nests. This was new to me. Usually when I come across pasta nests, it’s tagliatelle, another one of my favorites. But, since, it was angel hair for dinner, I had to come up with an appropriate recipe. We had some canned minced clams on hand, and caviar. So, I thought, why not whip up something with those ingredients? And the result is the recipe given. This can be a dish for a special occasion, since it includes caviar. Want to be fancy about it, you can tell your friends you’re serving Capelli d’ Angelo con Vongole e Caviar. That should impress your neighbors.
Note that dried, package pasta is always available, but if you can get a hold of fresh angel hair, that’s prefered. Also, the dish calls for black lumpfish caviar; but if you can get sevruga caviar, it’s even better.
ANGEL HAIR PASTA WITH CLAMS AND CAVIAR
Ingredients:
4 (6.5 oz) cans chopped or minced clams, drained
Juice of ½ lemon
4 tablespoons butter
4 fresh tarragon sprigs, stripped and chopped or 1 teaspoon dried
½ cup heavy cream
6 tablespoons dry white wine
1 pound angel hair pasta (if you can find fresh, even better)
Ground black pepper to taste
3 teaspoons black lumpfish caviar
Instructions:
- In a small bowl, combine the minced clams with the lemon juice. Melt butter in a large skillet or fry pan, add the clams and tarragon and stir over medium-high heat for a few seconds. Add the cream and stir for few seconds more. Pour in the wine, and season with pepper. Lower heat and simmer for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and cover.
- Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain, reserving a few spoonfuls of the cooking water. Add the clam sauce to the pasta, along with a little of the reserved water, and toss to combine. Place in a warmed serving bowl, sprinkle with the caviar, and enjoy.
Yield: 4 servings.
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