Yum.

One of my favorite things to see at a restaurant is a good macaroni and cheese dish that’s baked in individual cast iron dishes. The cast iron distributes the heat well so the mac and cheese is baked evenly and the edges are really crispy and delicious.

The problem of course is that I don’t have any mini cast iron dishes laying around to bake my mac and cheese in.

But I do happen to have one really large cast iron skillet that I figured would work just as well! You could put a ton of add-ins in this dish to make it your own. Lobster? Poblano peppers? Go crazy. I kept this version pretty standard though.

Cast Iron Mac and Cheese

Yield: Serves 6.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour

Ingredients:

1 pound elbow macaroni
8 ounces bacon
1/2 medium onion, diced
5 dried arbol peppers, crushed (or 2 Teaspoons red pepper flakes)
4 Tablespoons unsalted butter
4 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 Cups whole milk
16 ounces cheese (I used 8 ounces of Monterey Jack and 8 ounces cheddar cheese)
1/4 Cup Parmesan cheese, grated
1/4 Cup bread crumbs (optional)
Salt and Pepper
Maybe a drizzle of olive oil

Helpful Equipment:
A Cast Iron Skillet

Directions:

1) Cook macaroni according to package instructions and set aside.

2) Cut up bacon into 1/4 inch cubes and cook in cast iron skillet over medium-high heat until very crispy and browned. If bacon appears dry, drizzle with a bit of olive oil.

3) Remove bacon from pan and add onions and crushed peppers or red pepper flakes. Cook until onions are soft, about 5 minutes, stirring continuously. Remove onion mixture and combine with bacon.

Do not wash the skillet, but set it aside for later.

4) In a medium saucepan, melt butter and whisk in flour over medium heat. Cook until the roux is a light brown mixture, about 5 minutes. Continue to whisk and slowly pour in milk. Once all the milk is incorporated, whisk until smooth and turn the heat down to low.

5) Whisk in shredded cheeses and a pinch of salt and pepper to taste.

6) Combine cheese sauce with elbow macaroni and stir in bacon mixture. Pour the macaroni and cheese back into the cast iron skillet and top with grated Parmesan and/or bread crumbs.

7) Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes until cheese is browned.

8) Cool for 10 minutes before serving.

Prepping the Ingredients

I used some bacon and spicy Arbol peppers to give some flavor to the macaroni and cheese. Cooking all this stuff in the cast iron skillet that you eventually bake the mac and cheese in also seasons the skillet.

Start by chopping your bacon into pieces and then cook it in a large cast iron skillet over medium-high heat until the bacon is really crispy. If you want, add a drizzle of oil to the pan to get the bacon sizzling.

While the bacon cooks chop up an onion and also crunch your dried peppers if you’re using them. You can also just use red pepper flakes though.

The flavor party.

When the bacon is crispy, take it out of the pan and add your onion and dried peppers. Cook them in the bacon grease until the onions are soft. Then mix everything together and set it aside. Whatever you do, don’t clean or wipe out the skillet! That said, if there’s a pool of grease left over, pour out some of it. You just need a coat of oil.

Lots of flavors here.

Also, while this is happening, cook the elbow macaroni according to the package. I would recommend under-cooking it by a minute or two or else your mac and cheese might be a bit soggy.

Making the Cheese Sauce

This cheese sauce, like any good cheese sauce in my opinion, is based on a Roux which is just a mixture of flour and butter.

Start by melting the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Once it’s melted, add your flour to the butter and start whisking! It’ll bubble a bit and start to turn slightly tan. If you’ve never made a roux before, it isn’t that hard. Just remember not to let it sit for too long or it’ll burn.

After about 4-5 minutes of cooking your roux should be a nice light tan/brown color. Like this:

The Roux is on!

Once it gets that color, slowly start whisking in your milk. This is the only tricky part of making a cheese sauce like this. If you add your milk too fast, then you can’t whisk all the roux in evenly so you’ll end up with a lumpy sauce. Don’t worry about it too much though, just don’t dump in all your milk at once and you’ll be fine.

Once all the milk is in the pot, it should have the consistency of a light gravy.

Then whisk in all your grated cheese and season with salt and pepper. The longer you stir it on the burner, the thicker it will get.

This was a really good cheese sauce!

Maybe my best cheese sauce ever!

The Skillet

Remember that skillet that you cooked the bacon and onions in? I really hope that you didn’t wash it. Here’s my dirty pan ready for baking!

My favorite thing.

Back to the Macaroni

Once your cheese sauce is done, stir it into your drained macaroni. To be completely honest, this was very delicious just like this. If you don’t want to bake it or don’t have a cast iron skillet, it’s perfectly acceptable to serve it just like this!

You could eat it like this.

Baking the Dish

Assuming you do want to bake it though, stir in your bacon/onion/pepper mixture and then pour all of it back into your cast iron skillet. My skillet is a 15 inch skillet and it fit perfectly.

I didn’t have any bread crumbs around or I would’ve added some on top, but I did have some Parmesan so I grated some of that on top. I figured it would brown up nicely as well.

Accidentally no bread crumbs!

Bake this for about 30 minutes at 400 degrees. The mac and cheese should have a nice browned crust. Be sure to let it cool for 5 minutes or so before serving it up!

This is hard to beat.

If you’re intimidated by any part of this recipe, just remember that it’s really hard to go wrong with mac and cheese. Even if your sauce is a bit lumpy or if you overcook the macaroni a bit, it’s still going to be delicious. You’d have to work to make this dish not delicious.

I really liked baking it in a cast iron dish because of the crispy edges, but like I said, you could definitely just serve this up as a creamy style mac and cheese dish also.

Bust out your cast iron and give this a shot!

I generally like Tyler Florence recipes. He packs in lots of flavors which I love and he never gets too kitschy. He also doesn’t believe in substituting. He uses real butter, real cream, and real food. I like all of those things.

So it should go without saying that I liked these bad boys.

The toothpicks were useless.

One thing that I really liked about this recipe is that Tyler uses homemade bread crumbs instead of store bought. This gives the fried mozzarella a kind of rustic feel. Store bought crumbs are uniform and the final product would end up almost too perfect. Using homemade, you get crunchy little imperfect bits that are really tasty.

Fried Mozzarella Balls

Yield: Serves 2-4.

Prep Time: 45 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour

Ingredients:

The Mozz Balls:
1 pound mozzarella balls, or chop up mozz into cubes
2 Cups bread crumbs, homemade if possible
4 sprigs fresh rosemary, chopped
2 garlic cloved, diced
1/2 Cup all-purpose flour
2 eggs, beaten
Oil for frying (Canola or vegetable)

The Sauce: (I adapted this because I couldn't find any really stellar fresh tomatoes.)
1 15 ounce can fire roasted tomatoes
1/2 Medium onion, diced
1-2 garlic cloves, sliced
2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3-4 dried Arbol peppers or 1 Teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)
Kosher salt and fresh pepper

Helpful Equipment:
Deep Fry Thermometer

Directions:

1) Heat olive oil over high heat in a large pan and saute your onions, garlic and peppers for a few minutes. Be careful not to burn the garlic.

2) Let this mixture cool for a minute once the onions are soft and then add them to a food processor or blender with a pinch of salt and the tomatoes.

3) Toss a few piece of old bread in a 250 degree oven for 20 minutes then let them cool and crumble them up to make bread crumbs. A food processor works well for this.

4) Mix chopped garlic and rosemary with the breadcrumbs and a pinch of salt and pepper.

5) Dip cheese in flour to dry it off, then egg mixture, and finally give it a breadcrumb coating.

6) Stick the cheese balls in the freezer to cool for at least 15 minutes.

7) Heat oil for frying to 350 degrees. Fry cheese balls for about 2 minutes until they are a nice golden brown.

8) Serve the fried cheese with the tomato sauce!

Adapted from Tyler Florence Stirring the Pot.

Making the sauce

Ok. So the original sauce that Tyler whips up uses roasted cherry tomatoes. I wasn’t able to find any that looks good so I just used my new favorite canned tomato which is this fire roasted variety from Muir Glen. It makes for really good salsas and it turns out that it works great for dipping sauces like this also.

Sauce deconstructed.

I used some dried Arbol peppers I had laying around, but you could definitely just use red pepper flakes or leave out the peppers if you’re worried about the heat. Dice up your onion and garlic and crush up your peppers with your hands.

Then heat up the olive oil over high heat in a large pan and saute your onions, garlic, and peppers for a few minutes until the onions are soft and your kitchen smells like garlic and peppers.

Just the right amount of heat.

Let this mixture cool for a minute and then add it with a pinch of salt and pepper to a food processor or blender with your can of tomatoes. If you wanted a more rustic sauce you could probably just mush up everything with a fork.

This would also rule on a pizza...

Preparing the Breading

Like I said, one think I really liked about this recipe is the homemade breadcrumbs. They make for a great texture. If you’ve never made breadcrumbs before, just toss a few pieces of old bread in a 250 degree oven for about 20 minutes. Then let them cool for a few minutes. They should be very dry and crunchy. Then toss them in a food processor and pulse them until they are, well, crumbs.

They may not all be perfectly uniform, but that’s okay. That gives the crust on each cheese ball some character.

Also, chop up garlic and rosemary!

I love a big cutting board.

Mix your garlic, rosemary, and breadcrumbs with a good pinch of salt and pepper. Of course, you can use store bought breadcrumbs if that’s what you have.

Lots of flavor here.

On the cheese

Use a real, fresh mozzarella cheese for these. That will make them very delicious when they get all melted. You can definitely buy a big ball of cheese and cut it up into cubes, but these days sometimes you can find the tiny balls of mozzarella cheese in the deli section which are perfect for this recipe.

You could cut up your own also.

Making the balls

If you use fresh mozzarella, it will most likely be in a brine solution or at least be very wet so that’s what the flour is four in the recipe. Dip the cheese balls in flour to dry them out, then in the egg mixture, and finally press them into the breadcrumbs. Really press hard to make sure the crumbs stick nicely to each ball.

Ready to go in the pool.

Preparing to Fry!

First thing’s first, stick your breaded cheese balls in the fridge. You want to make sure they chill for at least 20 minutes or so to let them cool down. I actually stuck mine in the freezer for about 15 minutes. If you don’t get them cold, you run the risk of the cheese melting too fast and then you’ll have exploding cheese balls on your hands.

While they are chilling, get your frying setup ready which for me is a big pot filled about 1/4 of the way with canola oil and a deep fry thermometer hooked to the side. Once your oil reaches 350 you are ready to go.

These guys will only need about 2 minutes to become a nice golden brown. I’d recommend doing a test with one ball to make sure that they are cold enough and everything is working. It’d suck to throw them all in only to have a mess up.

When you do start cooking them, you don’t want to fry too many mozzarella balls at once. I was able to do mine all in one batch because I have a big 6 quart pot, but you might have to work in batches. You just don’t want any overlap. Also if the temp on your oil drops below 325, don’t add anymore as they won’t fry nicely.

As they come out of the oil, drain them quickly on a paper towel and then plate them up with a big bowl of the sauce. The sooner you can eat them, the better they’ll be!

Use your fingers people.

I thought toothpicks would be a good idea for these, but the best weapons for eating these are your fingers!

Here was my first bite!

Delicious.

Don’t get too worried if you lose one or two while frying. I lost one soldier. It happens. If you make sure that you press your crumbs on firmly and chill them out before frying, you shouldn’t have too many problems.

Like I said, I’m not sure that much can beat a crispy on the outside, melty on the inside, fried cheese thing.

So we decided it would be a good idea to have a guy’s night mainly with the goal of making them jealous. I spent a few hours braising some pork butt to make some carnitas. I figured that would a good guy’s night dish. I was right.

I might be wrong, but I’m pretty sure the ladies were jealous of our carnitas.

Guy's only!

Before I get too far into the carnitas though, I also made up a batch of my new favorite salsa. It’s really simple, but very tasty.

Carnitas

Yield: 1/2 pound per person

Prep Time: 30 minutes + marinade time

Total Time: 4 hours 40 minutes

Ingredients:

Boneless pork shoulder aka pork butt. I used a 3 pound cut for this post but just adjust it for however many people you are serving.
1 lime
Salt and pepper
2 Tablespoons canola oil
3-4 Mexican beers
Water
Assorted dried peppers (I used a mix of 2 ancho, 3 New Mexico, 7 arbol)
4 cloves garlic, sliced
2 bay leaves

Plus you'll want:
Flour or corn tortillas
Salsa (above or from a jar)
Red onion, sliced
Cojita cheese, crumbled
Cilantro (optional)
Black beans (optional)

Simple Salsa:
1 28 ounce can fire roasted tomatoes, drained
1/4 red onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 lime, juice only
2-3 jalapenos, seeded and chopped
Handful of cilantro (optional)
Salt and pepper

Helpful Equipment:
Blender

Directions:

1) To make salsa, roughly chop all your ingredients and add them to a blender or food processor. Pulse until it's chunky. Adjust flavors to fit your tastes.

2) Trim off some of the larger chunk of fats from the pork butt. Chop the butt into a few large chunks and add them to a bowl with salt, pepper, and the juice from one lime. Let this all marinade for an hour.

3) In a large dutch oven, heat a few tablespoons of neutral oil. Once hot, add pork chunks and sear well on all sides. Work in batches and don't crowd the pan. They will need 4 minutes per side to brown well.

4) Pour off the fat from the pork and reserve it for later. Don't wash the pot.

5) Add roasted dried peppers (roasted at 300 degrees for just 5 minutes) to the pot along with a cup of water. Use the water to scrape up all of the burned bits of pork in the pan. This is easy if you have it over high heat still. Then add all your other braising ingredients and bring to a simmer.

6) Add pork pieces back the pot. When liquid is simmering, cover, and put it in a 325 degree oven for 3 hours.

7) Remove your pork pieces from the pot after they braise and let them cool briefly. Preheat your oven to 450 degrees at this point.

8) Once your pork is cool enough to handle, pull it into strands with a few forks or your hands.

9) Add the pork to a baking dish. Pour the pork drippings from earlier over the shredded pork. Bake at 450 degrees for 10-15 minutes and the top of the pork will get nice and crispy.

10) Serve with warm tortillas and lots of toppings.

The Salsa

To make it, just roughly chop up all your ingredients and then add them to a blender or food processor. The fire roasted tomatoes give the whole thing a great, almost smoky flavor. Muir Glen makes a great version.

The fire roasted tomatoes are were it's at.

Blend this up until it’s a bit chunky or whatever consistency you are going for. This was about right for me.

Just add chips.

The important thing with salsa is to taste it on a chip as you go and adjust for flavors. Adjust for salt and pepper obviously but it also might need a bit more lime juice. It’s best if you can make this many hours before you need it because it’ll get better as it sits in the fridge. Also, it’ll get spicier so if you’re going to let it sit remember that’s gonna be hotter in a few hours.

The Carnitas

Ok. So there’s a lot of different ways to make carnitas, but the thing to remember is that it’s pretty hard to go wrong. If you want to be completely authentic, you need to actually braise the pork in lard which was a bit intense for me. Not because I’m scared but just because I don’t have the space for like a gallon of lard in my pantry. Plus it seems a bit excessive. If you’re interested though, here’s a good authentic recipe.

Instead of that, I braised my pork in a spicy beer liquid and then broiled it really hot once it was pulled to get it nice and crispy. I’m getting ahead of myself though.

Preparing the Butt

When you get your pork butt it’ll be large. Try to trim off some of the larger chunks of fat and then cut it into even pieces, four or five is ideal for a 3 pound butt. Then toss them in a bowl with a good pinch of salt and pepper and the juice from one lime. Rub this all in and let it sit for an hour at least, but the longer the better.

Nice lookin' butt.

One very important to making these work is to make sure you brown the meat nicely before you braise it. This actually goes for anytime you want to braise something. In a large dutch oven (or something oven and stovetop safe), heat a few tablespoons neutral oil. Once it’s hot add your pork pieces. Make sure they aren’t touching or overlapping. I had to do mine in two batches.

Let them sit (don’t fiddle!) for 4-5 minutes on each side. You want a really nice sear on each side. These were my pieces. Remember that these are basically raw on the inside. This is going to give the final product a lot of flavor though.

Browner the better.

In your pot, there will be lots of almost burned bits of pork and probably 1/2 cup of rendered pork fat. Pour off the fat and save it for later. We’ll need it in a few hours. It’ll look like this.

Oh… and don’t wash the pot!

Important.

If you have an assortment of dried peppers, they will give some great flavor to our braising liquid. I used a few that I had laying around. You can substitute 2 or 3 Tablespoons of your favorite chili powder if you want, but the whole chiles are cool.

If you use whole chiles, toast them in a 300 degree oven for about 5 minutes to activate all of their oils and flavors. Then you can add them right into the braising liquid.

This will smell spicy.

The Braising liquid

Braising the pork makes it incredibly tender and flavorful and is really the only way to go in my opinion. Take the pot that you used to brown the pork (you didn’t wash it did you?!)

Put the pot over high heat again and pour in about 1 Cup of warm water. Using a wooden spoon or spatula, scrape up all of those delicious pork bits. It should make a pretty dark liquid. Then add your pork pieces back into that liquid.

Add your beers, chiles, garlic, bay leaves, and enough water to just barely cover the pork. Should look something like this:

Do I have to tell you how this turned out?

Let this come to a simmer. Once it’s simmering, put on the lid and stick it in a 325 degree oven for about 3 hours. It’ll take that long for all of the fat in the pork to melt completely.

After a few hours, you can lift your pork pieces out with tongs. You’ll know you’re done because the pieces should almost fall apart just from lifting them out. They should be really tender.

After a few hours...

You’ll need to let these cool for a few minutes before you can handle them. Meanwhile, heat up your oven to 450.

Once your pork is cool, pull it into chunks using either your fingers or two forks. For guy’s night, I just used my hands because that’s the manly thing to do.

Add this to a baking dish.

It basically just falls apart.

Right now the pork is delicious, but it’s not as delicious as it could be. Ideally, we want to crisp it up a bit to make the texture even better.

Remember those pork drippings that were left over from browning the meat? Pour those over the pulled pork. Then add the dish into the oven.

After about 10 or 15 minutes, the pork will be crispy on the edges and just as tender.

Crispy and delicious.

Add this to a warm tortilla with your toppings of choice and you are ready for a meal.

The cojita is awesome.

If you’re curious what guys do when the ladies are out, I’ll let you in on a secret.

We try to take over the world.

Global Domination!

Dorky? Maybe. But whatever. We had fun (and I won). Plus we ate really well.

So take that ladies. Maybe next time we’ll invite you.

]]> http://www.macheesmo.com/2010/03/guys-night-carnitas/feed/ 13 http://www.macheesmo.com/2009/09/three-chile-quesadillas/ http://www.macheesmo.com/2009/09/three-chile-quesadillas/#comments Mon, 07 Sep 2009 11:00:54 +0000 Nick http://www.macheesmo.com/?p=7634 “I don’t really like quesadillas.” That’s what my roommate, Jeff, said when I told him what I was making for dinner. I, of course, took this as a challenge. The problem with most quesadillas, as stated by Jeff, is that the fillings tend to be kind of dull and people just rely on tons of cheese for flavor. So you end up with this gooey mess of cheese.

Some people like gooey messes of cheese.

But what you don’t want to do is rely on it. So, to prove him wrong (something I really enjoy doing), I made a really flavorful filling using three different kinds of chile peppers. Then you can either add a bunch of cheese or not. You can also top your three chile quesadillas with all kinds of fun stuff.

A mean quesadilla.

The recipe for these guys is extremely flexible. I’ll reproduce what I did below, but seriously feel free to adjust the peppers or the pepper quantity based on how hot you can handle.

Three Chile Quesadillas

Yield: 6 quesadillas

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 50 minutes

Ingredients:

2 pounds ground beef or mushrooms (I did 1 pound of each)
1 dried ancho pepper
6-8 dried Arbol peppers
6 chipotle peppers (and 1 Tablespoon of adobo sauce from the can)
1/2 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 12 ounce can black beans
4 Tablespoons oil
6 large tortillas (I used the very large ones made for wraps)
12-16 ounces shredded cheese, cheddar is always good
Salt and pepper

Toppings:
Fresh salsa
Greek yogurt or sour cream
Guacamole

Directions:

1) Cut portabella mushroom into chunky cubes.

2) Let the Ancho pepper soak in hot water for a few minutes the dice.

3) Crunch up the entire Arbol pepper. Use the skin and the seeds. Add these to a large skillet with a few tablespoons of oil and crank up the heat to medium-high.

4) Let simmer in the oil for a few minutes.

5) After a few minutes, add onions and garlic. Then add mushrooms (or beef) and chipotle peppers.

6) After about 6 minutes mushrooms will start to be cooked down and/or beef browned.

7) Add in black beans. Taste for salt and pepper also.

8) Lay each tortilla out, add a bit of cheese to one half, then pile on filling and finally top it with some more cheese.

9) In a 350 degree oven, cooked each quesadilla for a minute or two open-faced which helps melt the cheese well. Then take it out and fold over the half of the tortilla without filling on it. Then back in the oven for another 5 minutes or so.

10) After a few minutes, flip the quesadilla and cook it for a few more minutes.

11) Serve topped with salsa, guacamole, Greek yogurt of sour cream.

Making the filling

Jeff realized that this maybe wasn’t going to be the normal blah filling when I brought these guys out.

Lots of flavor. Lots of heat.

If you’re using mushrooms get a nice hearty mushroom like portabellas. Cut them into chunky cubes.

Meat substitute.

For the ancho pepper, let it soak in hot water for a few minutes to loosen it up a bit. No need to do that with the Arbol peppers though. Dice up the ancho pepper, and crunch up the entire Arbol pepper. Use the skin and the seeds. Add these to a large skillet with a few tablespoons of oil and crank up the heat to medium-high.

Let these simmer in the oil for a few minutes. Don’t worry, I didn’t forget about the chipotle. If you add that now though, it will just burn.

Nice.

After a few minutes, add your onions and garlic to the party. Then finally your mushrooms (or beef) and chipotle peppers. After about 6 minutes your mushrooms will start to be cooked down and/or your beef browned. Then add in your black beans. Taste for salt and pepper also.

Basically, the goal is to make one delicious and spicy filling.

The mushroom version will come out looking like this:

Fantastic filling alert.

And the beef version:

For you carnivores...

Cooking the quesadillas

Since all your flavor is in one filling, this is a really easy quesadilla to pull together. Lay each tortilla out, add a bit of cheese to one half, then pile on your filling and finally top it with some more cheese.

Ready to cook.

Now there are a few different ways to cook these guys. Basically, you just need to melt the cheese and crisp up the tortilla. I like to do this in the oven. In a 350 degree oven, I cooked each quesadilla for a minute or two open-faced which helps melt the cheese well. Then take it out and fold over the half of the tortilla without filling on it. Then back in the oven for another 5 minutes or so.

After a few minutes, you might want to actually flip the quesadilla and cook it for a few more minutes. Depends on your oven and tortilla.

You could also cook these in a skillet. I like the oven method because I can cook 3 or 4 at a time and kind of forget about them.

This is the mushroom version without any toppings.

Naked.

Honestly, they taste pretty good just like that, but I think the fun part about quesadillas is topping them with all kinds of fun stuff.

All dressed up.

You might be able to guess this, but the star of the show here is the filling. Both the meat and mushroom versions turned out great. The three different chiles made a very smooth heat with lots of flavor.

At the end of the day, I think I convinced Jeff that quesadillas can, in fact, be more than a cheesy-filled mess. He had no problem polishing off a few of these guys anyway.

Just a reminder that all the cool kids are getting Macheesmo updates via RSS or Email.

Lots of flavor on this.

There are two main things that make this clam linguine awesome. One, this version calls for some good dried chiles to give some heat to the whole thing and two, you reserve all the clam cooking liquid and add it to the tomato sauce which gives the pasta a really intense clam flavor.

Clam Linguine

Yield: Serves 4-6.

Prep Time: 30 minutes + soaking clams

Total Time: 50 minutes

Ingredients:

1 pound linguine
About 2-3 dozen clams
1/2 Cup white wine
6 dried arbol peppers (Add more or less depending on how hot you want it)
5 cloves garlic
2 Cups chopped fresh tomatoes
A few sprigs of fresh rosemary
4 Tablespoons olive oil
Good Parmesan cheese
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1) Soak the clams in ice water for a few hours (overnight if possible) to get all the sand out. Change the water at least once and if you add some oatmeal in with the water, it’s supposed to help clean out the clams.

2) In a large pan with a lid, add all of the clams that have been drained. Add the white wine to the pan as well and put it on medium heat with the lid on.

3) Let this simmer for 10 minutes or until all of the clams are open and cooked. It’s possible that all the clams may not open. Throw away the ones that don’t open.

4) After they cool a bit, use a fork to pull out the cooked clams. I think this just makes the final product a bit easier to eat, but if you want to leave half the shell, you can just rip them in half and keep the half that the clam is on.

5) Pour the clam juice through a coffee filter into a bowl to filter out any dirt.

6) Add the oil to a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the peppers (just crush them up a bit) and sprigs of rosemary to the oil.

7) Let these simmer away over low heat in the oil until the rosemary is almost burned, probably 5 minutes or so, then remove the rosemary sprigs.

8) Add the garlic to the oil and let it simmer for a few seconds and then add the tomatoes. Let this cook for a few minutes until the tomatoes begin to fall apart.

9) Once the tomatoes are releasing their liquid, add the clam juice to the pan. Simmer the sauce down until it has a saucy consistency. Add a pinch of salt.

10) Cook the pasta until it is just barely undercooked.

11) Drain it and add the sauce right into the pasta. If you want to play it safe, reserve a 1/2 Cup of the cooking liquid from the pasta. You can add that back at the end if you need more liquid for the sauce. Stir it all together!

12) Add some grated Parmesan cheese to this if you want and also be sure to add some salt and pepper to taste. Then serve it up!

Choosing and cleaning clams

Choosing clams is pretty straightforward. Basically, they should be clean smelling and alive. This means that the shells should be closed or if the shells are open they should close if you tap them a bit. I always think it’s best to use clams within a day or two of buying them.

The thing about clams that’s important to remember is that they live in sand. You know how when you go to the beach you get sand in every place even if those places didn’t actually touch sand? Well, clams are about 100 times worse. There is all kinds of sand inside those shells. The only way to get it all out is to soak the clams in ice water for a few hours. Actually I usually soak them overnight if possible.

You’ll want to change the water at least once and if you add some oatmeal in with the water, it’s supposed to help clean out the clams.

Important step unless you like chewing sand.

Cooking the Clams

I like to cook the clams first for this dish. In a large pan with a lid, add all of your clams that have been drained. Add your white wine to the pan as well and put it on medium heat with the lid on.

Let this simmer for 10 minutes or until all of the clams are open and cooked. It’s possible that all the clams may not open. Throw away the ones that don’t open. They are no good. After they cool a bit, you can use a fork to pull out the cooked clams. I think this just makes the final product a bit easier to eat, but if you want to leave half the shell, you can just rip them in half and keep the half that the clam is on.

I ended up with a big bowl of empties though after I took out the clams.

Empties.

The most important part of cooking the clams is the liquid that is left which is basically clam juice. It’s really flavorful and we will add it to the sauce later. For now though, just pour it through a coffee filter into a bowl. This will filter out any tiny grains of dirt or sand that were in the clams that ended up in the juice.

Looks strange. Smells awesome.

The Sauce

The sauce for this dish looks really light in the final product, but it has a lot of flavor. That’s because it includes both of these things: fresh rosemary and arbol peppers. Arbol peppers are pretty spicy, similar to the cayenne.

Good stuff.

To start the sauce, add your oil to a large saucepan over medium heat. Add your peppers (just crush them up a bit) and sprigs of rosemary to the oil. Your house will immediately begin smelling amazing.

Flavoring the oil.

Let these simmer away in the oil until the rosemary is almost burned, probably 5 minutes or so. Then remove the rosemary sprigs. No need to get it all out, but just take out the large sprigs. There will be plenty of rosemary flavor infused in the oil now.

Then you’ll need some garlic and tomatoes.

Sauce basics.

Add the garlic to the oil and let it simmer for a few seconds and then add your tomatoes. You can definitely use canned tomatoes here if you can’t find good fresh ones.

Let this cook for a few minutes until the tomatoes begin to fall apart.

A light but flavorful sauce.

Once your tomatoes are releasing their liquid, add your clam juice to the pan. Depending on how much juice you have it might be pretty watery. That’s okay. Just simmer the sauce down until it has a saucy consistency. I like mine a bit on the watery side though. Add a pinch of salt also.

Meanwhile, start your pasta and cook it until it is just barely undercooked. For my linguine it said to cook it for 10 minutes and so I cooked it for 9 and then pulled it. The noodles had just a bit more bite to it than normal.

Once it is cooked, drain it and add your sauce right into the pasta. If you want to play it safe, reserve a 1/2 Cup of the cooking liquid from the pasta. You can add that back at the end if you need more liquid for your sauce. I didn’t need to do this though. There was more than enough liquid from the clam juice.

Stir it all together!

All mixed up!

The pasta will finish cooking in the sauce liquid. Add some grated Parmesan cheese to this if you want and also be sure to add some salt and pepper to taste.

Then serve it up!

Really good!

And yes, I did keep a few clams on the half shell just for presentation. In general, I think it’s easier to eat and just as flavorful if you remove all the clams.

I love this dish so much. The pasta is spicy and has lots of rosemary and garlic flavor. But the clam flavor is always there in the background.

Seriously, it’s probably the best clam linguine version I’ve had. I owe Betsy’s cousin a few beers for this one.