Creamy Canned Clam Pasta with Pesto
Are you ready to wow the crowd with this unique clam pasta recipe? This easy and delicious creamy canned clam pasta with pesto is so flavourful and takes clam pasta to a whole new level! We can’t say enough good things about this recipe. It is so YUMMY!!!
We adore this creamy canned clam pasta with pesto, because it is so different than any other pasta recipe we make. Garlic, onion, red pepper flakes, parsley, baby clams, cream, wine, clam juice and PESTO?! Talk about a mix of flavours. But trust us, they work. Seriously, you’ll be wondering if someone swapped your sauce with one that came from a 5-star restaurant. It’s THAT good.
The secret to our creamy canned clam pasta – PESTO!
The secret ingredient… PESTO! Adding pesto completely enhances a classic clam pasta recipe, WITHOUT taking away the other yummy flavours. The sauce is creamy, but only has a 1/4 cup of cream! This recipe is a big win.
Our creamy canned clam pasta with pesto recipe is also a great introduction to those “not sure” about eating clams. The baby clams are so small, they won’t even know that’s what their eating! Plus, even with the addition of clam juice, the clam flavour is not overpowering with the added pesto.
While this recipe is easy to follow and quick to make, we do have a few tips of advice before you start.
First, we highly recommend buying CLAM JUICE, rather than using the juice that comes from the baby clam can. The juice from the can is simply water, therefore it is far less flavourful than buying actual clam juice. You can definitely still add the water from the baby clams can, but not as an alternative! The two pictures below are our brand of choice when buying clam juice and baby clams.
Second, after adding in all the ingredient to make the sauce (except the clams, pepper and cream) you should let it simmer for about 10-15 minutes, to enhance all the flavours. However, it is crucial to not simmer for longer, as too much of your sauce will evaporate leaving you with less creamy sauce for your pasta. We ALWAYS recommend saving some of the pasta water before draining your pasta. If you don’t think you have enough sauce for your pasta, you can always add in a bit of the pasta water to make it more creamy and “saucy”.
Last, the PESTO. We make our own homemade pesto (recipe coming soon), that we add to this sauce. However, when we run out, which we generally do in the winter, we highly, highly recommend Costco’s pesto. We have yet to find a pesto anywhere else that’s as good as Costco’s. If you don’t have access to a Costco, or don’t make your own homemade pesto – make sure you like the taste of the pesto you buy, before using it for this recipe. Store bought pesto’s all have a very unique taste (at least the one’s we’ve tried) and because the pesto is such a large component of this recipe, if you use a pesto you don’t like, you could ultimately be ruining the recipe. SO, just make sure you like it!
Okay, enough of the boring stuff!! We can’t wait for you to try this creamy canned clam pasta. Comment or send us an email with you thoughts and opinions!
Skål,
Canned Clam Pasta with Pesto
Ingredients
- 1 lbs. spaghettini
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 small onion, diced
- 4 cloves minced garlic
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 3 tablespoons chopped parsley, fresh
- 3 tablespoons pesto
- 1 cup dry white wine or chicken stock
- 236 ml clam juice one jar
- 10 oz baby clams two cans
- ½ teaspoon pepper
- ¼ cup cream
Instructions
- In a large saucepan, over low-medium heat, add olive oil and onion – cook until soft. About, 5 minutes.
- Add the garlic and red pepper flakes, continue cooking on low-medium heat for a few minutes. Try to not let the garlic brown.
- Add in 2 tbsp chopped parsley, pesto, white wine or chicken stock, and clam juice. Let simmer for 10-15 minutes, then add cream and additional tbsp of parsley and let simmer for an additional, 3-5 minutes.
- To finish off the sauce, add baby clams and pepper to the saucepan and remove from heat. Put aside and begin cooking the spaghettini.
- Follow the instructions on the box for spaghettini.
- Just before the pasta is ready, reheat the sauce. Drain pasta well and serve the clam sauce over the pasta.
- Serve with parmesan cheese and top with parsley and red pepper flakes for additional spice if desired. Enjoy!
During this COVID isolating, how much red sauce can you eat? I had all of the ingredients for this recipe in my pantry and harvested my parsley to add to the sauce and to garnish.
I don’t think I’ll try another clam sauce after this. The pesto adds another level of flavour and the red pepper ramps up just enough heat.
This is good enough and nice looking enough to serve for company.
I didn’t change one thing!
Thanks so much for the comment Cath. We are thrilled you enjoyed this recipe and we agree, it is a lovely alternative to red sauce!
I’ve been doing my version of this for quite some time and it was good. This version was excellent. I used chicken broth, omitted the cream, and upped the red pepper flakes. This will be on my list of recipes to do again.
Thank you for the comment Elaine! We are happy you enjoyed our version; we will have to try it with your revisions soon.
This terrific, I’ve passed it on to others who like good seafood recipes
This is terrific! I’ve passed it on to others who like good seafood recipes!