Wegmans Clams with Barilotti Pasta

Hey guys, Chef Mark here. Today I am gonna make for you
a dish that I really love. It is gonna be clams
with Barilotti pasta. One pot dish, we are gonna
cook the pasta right inside the clam juice that we are
gonna get from these. We are gonna start with
these little neck clams here. We have actually partnered
with a family run business out in lower Chesapeake Bay
where we can track these guys from the smallest amount
up till harvest so we can make sure these are the best quality.
When I make this clam dish, I actually need to make
a flavorful broth to cook the clams and the pasta in,
so our garlic cheese finishing butter is gonna be perfect.
It is got some pecorino Romano cheese in there,
obviously the garlic, and it is got a little bit
of crushed red pepper. It is gonna be a perfect
complement to our clams. Alright, the last thing I need
to do is get my pasta for this. I am gonna turn to one of our
artisan pastas here. You are gonna notice that these
have a little bit rougher cut on it It is designed that way to hold
the sauce a little bit better. I am gonna use our
Barilotti here. Sort of a barrel shape pasta.
All these imported straight from Italy.
Got my clams and my pasta, lets go cook this thing.
Alright guys, it哀 time to make these clams.
First thing I wanna make sure that you do is get to the house,
get them in some water here, I wanna make sure that you
rinse these guys off. Fill our a bowl with water,
put your clams on the inside, get your hands on them,
move them around a little bit. What you are trying to do
is create a little bit of friction, get that sand that is on
the outside clinging to them off. The other thing I wanna make
sure you do is make sure that every single one
of these is closed. You know, like this guy.
This happens to have a little crack in there,
I am fine with that as long as the door哀 closed.
but if I get one of these that happens to be slightly open,
those are the ones that aren咨 good to eat.
So you come by here, maybe knock on them a little bit,
if they start to close, we are golden.
So last little rinse here. And since it happens to be
such a beautiful day outside, I am gonna go cook these
out on a side burner on my grill. Alright, so we are outside,
again, like I said, a beautiful day.
I have got two and a half cups of water here boiling.
To that I am actually gonna add half of this container
of our garlic cheese butter. This is gonna be
a flavorful liquid that we are gonna cook
our pasta in after we do our clams.
So put the garlic cheese butter in there,
then I do all of my clams all at once.
Gonna dump those guys in. Put the lid on it,
and it is just as easy as that. We are gonna sit here and wait for
about maybe eight minutes or so. You might wanna get
in there maybe half way through and kind of jiggle it up there,
move the clams around, and help them to open up.
But we are gonna wait about eight minutes,
and those clams should all be open.
Okay guys, it哀 been about eight minutes,
my clams should be about ready,
but lets check on those guys.
So I am gonna pull my lid off, turn it over to the side here,
and get in here. All of my clams are open.
Gotta make sure that each one is,
if they are not, you wanna discard them,
but I definitely want to get these guys out now
because they are all open, fully cooked.
They look beautiful. Alright, so I have the last
of my clams coming out here. What I wanna make sure
that you do is leave this water boiling because then I am gonna take
a quarter package, about two cups
of that Barilotti pasta and add that directly
to our water here, which already has some
flavor in it from the broth of our clams and that
garlic cheese butter. That is gonna add a ton
of flavor to the pasta. It is actually gonna soak
up inside that as well. So that is gonna go maybe
seven minutes or so, cook it al dente,
however you like. And then we are gonna put
the rest of the thing together. What I like to do here
is take my clams as we wait, give them just a little bit
of a cover of aluminum foil just to keep them
nice and warm until we put the rest
of it together. And then I am gonna chop up
my parsley because I have to add it in afterwards.
So I take my parsley, small bunch,
and actually roll this together and bunch it nice and tight
so that when I make a nice thin slice of this,
I only have to go through once with the blade of my knife
and it keeps that nice fresh green flavor
of our parsley in there. Alright, so we will give this a wait
and then we will finish up in a minute. Alright, so it has been about
seven minutes, my pasta is about done.
Lets finish this guy off. So I have that beautiful
broth on the inside, I am gonna take
the last half of my garlic cheese butter,
and we are gonna stir that right in there.
That哀 gonna flavor the last bit of broth.
We are gonna serve that right over our clams.
And I even have some of that parsley,
goes right on the top, nice and fresh.
And just melt that through, thats all we need.
This is gonna serve four, I am gonna do one portion here.
So some of that pasta down there.
Nice, beautiful broth. And our clams,
which have stayed nice and warm here.
Serve that on the side. Give everybody a little bit,
I think there is about a dozen clams per person.
Then, last thing I need to do is make sure--
just to warm those clams up the last little bit,
is take some of that broth and pour it directly over the top
of our clams, it will warm those guys right up.
And this is just about the best one pot meal you ever make
outside even.