Linguine with White Clam Sauce (Canned Clams)
The pantry clam sauce: canned clams and bottled clam juice simmered with butter, celery, shallots, garlic, parsley and a splash of soy sauce, with linguine finished in the broth and lemon wedges on the side.
Italian-American clam sauce comes in red and white, just like vongole in Italy, but the American version is just as often made from a can. Wikipedia notes how Italian-American clam pasta drifts from the Italian original: some recipes add cream, and some add cheese, which Italians say smothers the clams. Canned minced clams and bottled clam juice let you make it any night of the year, far from the coast.
Sho Spaeth, Serious Eats' features editor at the time, wrote this recipe in 2020 and says it is close to how he has made the dish for about 20 years, since high school. He is clear about what it is not: no one could say it beats spaghetti alle vongole made with fresh clams. But it is "clammy," easy and fast. His additions are pure home cook: celery and its pale leaves for freshness, butter for body, and a teaspoon of soy sauce, whose glutamates, he explains, round out the savory flavor of the clams.
🇺🇸 This one is American
The pantry clam sauce: canned clams and bottled clam juice simmered with butter, celery, shallots, garlic, parsley and a splash of soy sauce, with linguine finished in the broth and lemon wedges on the side.
🇮🇹 The original
On the Italian coast it's spaghetti alle vongole: fresh clams steamed open in white wine with garlic, chile and parsley, the pasta finished in their juices. See the Spaghetti alle Vongole in Bianco (Spaghetti with Fresh Clams) recipe.
Why it works the kitchen science
Pasta cooked in the clam broth
Finishing the last 4 minutes in the simmering clam juice lets the noodles absorb the briny flavor and release starch that thickens the sauce.
Soy sauce
Spaeth explains that its glutamates work with the inosinate in clams and clam juice to make the sauce taste much more savory, without tasting of soy.
Step by step
- Step 1
In a 12-inch stainless steel skillet, melt 2 tbsp butter over medium heat and swirl until the foaming stops. Add the celery, shallots, 1/4 cup parsley, the garlic, chile if using, and a few grinds of black pepper. Cook, stirring, 1 to 2 minutes, until soft and fragrant.
- Step 2
Pour in the bottled clam juice and the liquid from the cans (keep the clam meat aside). Bring to a boil over high heat, then lower to a simmer for about 5 minutes, until slightly reduced. There should still be enough liquid to cover a pound of pasta. Turn off the heat and stir in the clam meat and soy sauce.
- Step 3
Cook the linguine in salted boiling water, stirring often, until about 4 minutes short of how you like it.
- Step 4
Bring the clam sauce back to a boil over high heat. Move the pasta into it with tongs, pushing it under the liquid.
- Step 5
Cook, tossing now and then, about 4 minutes, until the pasta is done and the sauce has thickened slightly. Taste and add salt if needed.
- Step 6
Turn off the heat, add the last 2 tbsp butter and 1/4 cup parsley and toss hard until the butter melts into the sauce. Divide among plates, spoon the clams and sauce over, scatter celery leaves and serve with lemon wedges.
Linguine with White Clam Sauce (Canned Clams)
Serves 4 · 4 plates · 25 min total
Sauce
- 4 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces, divided
- 2 celery ribs (5 oz), peeled if you like and cut into small dice
- 2 medium shallots, minced
- 1/2 cup finely chopped fresh parsley, divided
- 4 medium garlic cloves, finely minced
- 1 fresh green Thai chile, thinly sliced (optional; or a pinch of red pepper flakes)
- Freshly ground black pepper
- Two 8-oz bottles clam juice
- Two 6 1/2-oz cans chopped or minced clams, meat and liquid separated
- 1 tsp soy sauce
Pasta and garnish
- Kosher salt, for the water
- 1 lb dried linguine (or spaghetti)
- Pale celery leaves from the heart, for garnish
- Lemon wedges, for serving
Method
- In a 12-inch stainless steel skillet, melt 2 tbsp butter over medium heat and swirl until the foaming stops. Add the celery, shallots, 1/4 cup parsley, the garlic, chile if using, and a few grinds of black pepper. Cook, stirring, 1 to 2 minutes, until soft and fragrant.
- Pour in the bottled clam juice and the liquid from the cans (keep the clam meat aside). Bring to a boil over high heat, then lower to a simmer for about 5 minutes, until slightly reduced. There should still be enough liquid to cover a pound of pasta. Turn off the heat and stir in the clam meat and soy sauce.
- Cook the linguine in salted boiling water, stirring often, until about 4 minutes short of how you like it.
- Bring the clam sauce back to a boil over high heat. Move the pasta into it with tongs, pushing it under the liquid.
- Cook, tossing now and then, about 4 minutes, until the pasta is done and the sauce has thickened slightly. Taste and add salt if needed.
- Turn off the heat, add the last 2 tbsp butter and 1/4 cup parsley and toss hard until the butter melts into the sauce. Divide among plates, spoon the clams and sauce over, scatter celery leaves and serve with lemon wedges.
Adapted from Sho Spaeth, "Spaghetti With Canned-Clam Sauce," Serious Eats (published March 31, 2020, updated February 26, 2025), serves 4. We follow it as written: 4 tbsp butter (2 to start, 2 to finish); 2 celery ribs; 2 shallots; 1/2 cup parsley divided; 4 garlic cloves; an optional Thai chile; two 8-oz bottles clam juice plus the liquid from two 6 1/2-oz cans of clams, simmered about 5 minutes; the clam meat and 1 tsp soy sauce off the heat; 1 lb pasta cooked 4 minutes short of done and finished about 4 minutes in the sauce; celery leaves and lemon wedges. Spaeth uses spaghetti; linguine, the usual Italian-American choice for clam sauce, is our swap and cooks the same way. Serious Eats. Ingredient list follows the source; the method is in our own words.
All sources (2)
Tips
- Add the clam meat off the heat; canned clams are already cooked and toughen if boiled.
- Spaeth suggests a few chopped anchovies or thin strips of bacon at the start if you like those flavors.
- Celery leaves are a garnish with flavor, not just color.
- Want red clam sauce?
The rules people argue about
What the sources agree on, what they don't, and what is just a good story.
- Canned clam sauce is a lesser dish. Disputed: Spaeth says it is not better than fresh vongole but is tasty and fast; Wikipedia does not rank them.
- Linguine, not spaghetti. Folklore: Spaeth uses spaghetti; Wikipedia's vongole article names spaghetti.
- No cheese on clam sauce. Documented as Italian practice (Wikipedia); Spaeth's recipe has none.
- Italian-American clam sauce has cream. Folklore as a rule: Wikipedia says some recipes do; Spaeth's has butter, not cream.
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