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Spaghetti with Clams

A pasta dish of spaghetti, live clams, tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, parsley, and pepper, cooked together in a pan.

From the Wikibooks Cookbook · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Garlic and clam work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and 119 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-methylbutyraldehyde, which smells malty, chocolate. The science ↓

The recipe

serves 6
Time7–8 minutes

Ingredients

Contains: wheat, shellfish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Also mentioned in the method: pasta

Directions

Cook the pasta

  1. Boil the water in a large pot with a tablespoon of salt.

  2. Add the spaghetti once the water starts boiling.

  3. Cook until the pasta is al dente (7–8 minutes).

Make the sauce

  1. Pour olive oil into a large, wide pan so that it barely covers the bottom.

  2. Heat the oil.

  3. Add the garlic and peperoncino.

  4. Sauté until golden brown (about a minute).

  5. Be careful not to burn the garlic.

  6. Add the live clams and diced tomatoes.

  7. Put the lid on the pan and cook for about eight minutes.

  8. Shake the pan every minute or so to help the clams open.

  9. Throw out those that don't.

Combine and serve

  1. Drain the spaghetti.

  2. Put it in the pan with the live clams and tomatoes.

  3. Reduce the heat to low.

  4. Add the canned clams and clam broth to the pan.

  5. Season with salt (and pepper, if the peperoncino is not used) to taste.

  6. Toss until the pasta is well coated with tomatoes and oil.

  7. Add another tablespoon of olive oil if you like.

  8. Sprinkle with chopped parsley.

  9. Serve hot.

Recipe from the Wikibooks Cookbook.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Garlic + clamtop 9% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together119 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

  2. Olive + tomatotop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together14,164 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together34,118 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Garlic + tomatotop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together14,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  5. Olive + garlictop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together23,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Live clams
Release their juices and briny flavor into the sauce as they open.
Garlic
Provides aroma and savory flavor when gently sautéed in the oil.
Plum tomatoes
Add moisture and acidity that combine with the oil to coat the pasta.
Spaghetti
Forms the base of the dish, absorbing the sauce and clam juices.
Olive oil
Carries the garlic and peperoncino flavor and helps coat the pasta.

The step that matters

Be careful not to burn the garlic. Garlic turns bitter when it browns too far, and that bitterness carries through the whole sauce. Sautéing it gently until golden keeps its flavor sweet and mild.

Flavor stand-ins for the plum

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (olive, garlic, clam, tomato, parsley, pepper):

  1. Lemonbetter flavor fit
  2. Limebetter flavor fit
  3. Avocadobetter flavor fit
  4. Plumthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against olive, garlic, clam, tomato, parsley, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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