Can You Make Delicious Spaghetti with Clam Sauce Using Frozen Clams?
Updated: Feb 16
Spaghetti with Clam Sauce is a classic dish, but it can be expensive. We modified a Food & Wine magazine recipe to use frozen clams, so serving 2-4 costs under $10. Make this classic seafood dish without breaking your budget!
Spaghetti with Frozen Clams
Like everyone who eats Italianfood, I love pasta and clams. It's a classic combination, but finding and affording fresh clams is difficult (or even impossible in many places). Even in remote areas, cooks can find frozen clams, and they are typically inexpensive. I love serving this dish with the clams in the shells, but you can easily remove them from the shells after cooking them and keep only a few as garnish.
The result is a perfect pasta dish for 2-4 people:
Please note: a serving of pasta is 2-4 ounces, depending on whether you are eating it as a first course or an only course. Alas, Americans like larger servings than Europeans. The size of your servings is completely up to you.
Frozen Clams
Frozen clams are everywhere: in supermarkets, seafood shops, and specialty stores. I found a pound of hardshell clams at Wild Fork Foods (in major US cities and all over Florida) for $4.98. An Instacart search revealed over ten places in the Tampa Bay area that sell frozen clams for under $6/dozen. I can't speak to the quality of all these products, but the frozen hardshell clams from Wild Fork were amazing--no sand or grit, not overcooked or rubbery, and good flavor and texture. They are much closer to fresh than canned clams. They look great in dishes because they are in the shell.
When cooking with frozen clams, make sure you defrost them. Save the juices, put the clams in a colander, and run cold water over them to ensure the shells are clean. The retained juice can be used if it's clean and has no sand or grit. (Strain it through a cheesecloth, if necessary.)
The Wild Fork clams were clean, and the juice had no sand or grit and tasted fresh and briny. I used the brine in this dish and did not need the optional extra clam juice. Keep the clam juice handy, but you probably won't need it if you can use the juices from the clam package.
Below are my clams, up close, and a view of the juice.
From left: A closed clam, an open clam, and clean clam juice.
The clams I used were cooked, so many of them were open. If you have raw frozen clams, throw out open clams. If your frozen clams are pre-cooked, some will naturally be open, and some closed, and that's okay. After you cook them, all should have opened. I have never encountered a bad or spoiled frozen clam, but it is possible. Inspect your clams and use good judgment.
Instructions
Put 2 quarts of water and 2 teaspoons kosher salt in a large skillet. Bring to a boil, then add your pasta.
In another large skillet, heat olive oil and sauté the garlic and shallots until they begin to brown. Add the crushed pepper and sauté until it releases its fragrance.
Add the defrosted and rinsed clams to the skillet along with the retained juices and cook until all the clams have opened and are hot. Remove the clams with a slotted spoon to a bowl. Continue heating the remaining sauce with 1/3 c. of pasta water. This makes the sauce thicken as the pasta water reduces.
Add the oregano, thyme, and lemon zest. Heat until the herbs and lemon become fragrant and the sauce thickens slightly. When the pasta is al dente, remove it from the pot with a pasta spoon and add it to the skillet.
Stir and flip the pasta until it is well-coated. Add the lemon juice and butter (if using) and flip and stir until melted and combined. Add the clams to the skillet and stir. Add parsley and serve immediately.
