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Traditional Red Seafood Sauce with Shrimp, Clams, and Mussels

Traditional Red Seafood Sauce with Shrimp, Clams, and Mussels

Chef's notes

Base recipe is a version of my “Delicate Red Shrimp Sauce” with the addition of hard-shell clams and mussels. Volume of shrimp is reduced to 1 ½ pounds and an additional can of tomato is needed.

As discussed above, seafood sauce must be light, not overcooked to retain taste of fresh tomato. Premium tomatoes without puree imported from San Marino Italy are preferred.

Clams: Hard shell clams come in a variety of sizes. The larger the clams, the chewier the meat with prolonged cooking to open. Smaller Littleneck clams are a good option for this recipe

Select a large master pot with room to toss all ingredients.

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Traditional Red Seafood Sauce with Shrimp, Clams, and Mussels

Ingredients

Slow simmered garlic oil

4 large garlic cloves
1 cup olive oil
Kosher salt
Pinch of red pepper flakes

Remaining Ingredients

1 1/2 pounds of large shrimp, 21 to 30 per pound, preferably with shells
3-28oz cans of crushed tomatoes without puree from San Marino Italy
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
3 or 4 5-inch stalks of fresh basil.
Salt, black pepper and additional red pepper flakes as needed
Bottled clam juice
32 live littleneck clams
1-pound large fresh mussels
1 ½ to 2 pounds of linguini or your favorite pasta

Instructions

Garlic oil…Well ahead remove course tips from garlic and slice each in half lengthwise. Retain skin. Place in a narrow butter melting style pot with 1 cup olive oil, pinches of Kosher salt and red pepper flakes. Place over medium heat. As the oil starts to simmer, reduce heat to lowest. Garlic and oil are ready when skins are released, garlic is tanned, softened, and sweet, a couple of hours. Remove skins and set pot aside.
Clean shrimp reserving shells. Sautee shells with some of the garlic oil for about 5 minutes. Remove skins with a slotted spoon reserving as much of the liquid as you can. Discard shells.
Quick toss shrimp with medium heat until lightly pink outside, still slightly translucent inside. Refrigerate until close to adding to sauce.
Add the remainder of Peter's infused garlic and oil, canned tomatoes, red pepper flakes, basil stocks, and about a cup of clam juice. Simmer with cover ajar for about 2 hours, stirring occasionally. Add more bottled clam juice (or water) as needed.
While simmering, scrub clams and mussels under cold water. Remove "beards" from the mussels. Set aside.
Sauce will be ready to finish in about 2 hours. Replenish moisture with additional clam broth as needed.
Near dinnertime, place pasta in briskly boiling salted water.
When pasta is almost cooked al dente, reheat the shrimp and residual juices in the sauce. Reserve a cup of pasta water. Strain pasta. Place in a bowl or serving platterRemove basil from sauce. Increase heat, spread clams and mussels over sauce and cover. Discard any that do not open. Add shrimp to warm and quickly finish.
Strain pasta when al dente.
Place pasta into a large serving bowl. Toss with sauce. Generously top with seafood. Have additional seafood available.

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