Visit your favorite seafood vendor to stock up for this recipe. You may want to call a day ahead to make sure they’ll have enough bivalves on hand. Also, feel free to mix and match your favorite seafood items; if you don’t like scallops, for example, substitute shrimp. If you don’t like squid, try a firm-fleshed fish instead. One major shortcut opportunity: Use canned clams instead of clams in the shell. We increased the amount of mint used in the original recipe by 2 tablespoons to enhance this dish’s mintiness. Adapted from “Cuisine u Latina,” by Michelle Bernstein (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt). Serves 4 to 6.
Ingredients
1/2 cup dry white wine
12 littleneck clams, scrubbed
12 mussels, scrubbed and debearded
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 cup minced shallots
2 tablespoons minced garlic
4 cups seafood stock or water
1 cup oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, drained
8 ounces spaghetti
8 ounces large shrimp (16-20 count), peeled, deveined and chopped into 1/4-inch pieces
8 ounces bay scallops, quartered
4 ounces cleaned squid, bodies and tentacles, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh mint
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh basil
Grated zest of 1 lemon
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
Directions
Bring the wine to a simmer in a large heavy pot over medium-high heat. Add the clams and mussels, cover, and cook until they open, about 4 minutes for the clams and 5 minutes for the mussels. As they open, use tongs to transfer them to a bowl or plate. Discard any clams or mussels that have not opened after five minutes.
When cool enough to handle, shuck the clams and mussels and set the meat aside. Discard the shells.
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.
Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the shallots and garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened but not browned, about 3 minutes. Stir in the stock or water and tomatoes, raise the heat to high, and cook until the liquid is reduced by half.
When the water boils, add the pasta and cook until al dente.
Add the shrimp, scallops, squid, clams, mussels and butter to the tomato mixture and cook for 3 minutes. Drain the pasta and add it to the pan, along with the parsley, mint, basil and lemon zest. Season with salt and pepper and toss well to combine all the ingredients. Serve.
