This tasty dish with plump littleneck clams, spicy Portuguese sausage, onions, sundried tomatoes cooked in white wine is one of my summertime favorites. It’s a stress-free, easy dish to make on a hot summer day and with chilled glass of wine and some crusty bread, you have a complete meal!
How to Clean Your Clams
Before you cook clams, make sure to clean them first because they contain sand inside the shell. You don’t want to ruin your beautiful clam dish with mouthful of sand and other debris!
Place your clams in a large bowl then cover with water and let it soak. I usually soak my clams in water and keep it in the fridge overnight but If that’s too long, soak it for at least 2 hours. Once I take my bowl of clams out of the fridge I rinse them thoroughly with water.
As you rinse the clams, you should be looking out for any clams with cracked or broken shells to discard. Now, If your local seafood market have excellent, well-trained people like they do at Santa Monica Seafood, they inspect all the clams before packing them up for you.
What is Linguiça ?
Linguiça is what made me fall in love with this clam dish. Linguiça is a Portuguese sausage seasoned with garlic, paprika, and chiles. This sausage is juicy, garlicky, smoky and when you cook them with white wine and clams, you get the most amazing, flavorful broth!
I like spicy food, so I found these spicy version at my local store. If you’re not too big on spicy sausage, Silva also makes regular Linguiça as well.
Tips for Delicious Clams and Portuguese Sausage
- Boil Linguiça first. Like I said, I love this sausage and it’s delicious, but it’s pretty salty. To prevent this dish from being super salty, boil Linguiça first for 5 minutes. This will take lot of the salt out and you have a nice, perfectly seasoned dish!
- Use semi-dry white wine. I find dry white wines like Pinot Grigio or some Sauvignon Blanc often make broth or sauce acidic or bitter. Semi-dry wines (there are some Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc that fall into this category) have enough sweetness that will make well-balanced clam broth.
- Add sugar to the broth. If your broth is too acidic, add some sugar! Toss clams and other ingredients in the skillet so the sugar gets evenly distributed.
- Discard unopened clams. Clams should open up after 10 minutes under high heat. If there are any unopened clams, just discard them and never try to pry them open.
How to Serve Clams and Portuguese Sausage
Enjoy this bowl of steaming, plump clams and Portuguese sausage with some crusty, bread or pair it with other seafood dishes like crab cakes or poached salmon salad for an all out seafood feast! I was also going for the seafood theme for my table, and served my clams in fish-shaped bowls hand-made by a local artist. I think these pieces are must haves for seafood lovers and as always, delicious food gets elevated by unique tableware!
Clams with Portuguese Sausage
Ingredients
- 3 lbs littleneck or manila clams soaked in water and rinsed
- 5.5 oz Linguiça sausage sliced into ¼" thick coins
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- ½ large sweet onion thinly sliced
- ½ cup sundried tomatoes
- 2 cups white wine (I used chardonnay)
- 1-2 tsp sugar (optional to use if wine is too dry)
- ½ cup chopped parsley leaves
- lemon slices
Instructions
- Add water to medium saucepan and bring to a boil under medium-high heat. Add Linguiça sausage and boil for 5 minutes. Drain and set it aside.
- Heat large skillet over medium-high heat and add olive oil. Toss in sliced onions and sauté for 4-5 minutes or until onions are translucent but not browned. Stir in Linguiça, sundried tomatoes and combine with onions.
- Turn heat to high and toss in clams and combine with onion and Linguiça mixture. Add white wine and place cover on skillet and cook until clams have opened up. Discard any unopened clams. If the broth is too acidic or bitter, add sugar and toss the ingredients.
- Garnish with chopped parsley leaves, lemon slices and serve immediately.