Spaghetti with Oven Baked Clams

Ready in 34 minutes
Prep: 20 minutes
Cook: 14 minutes

Yield: 4-6 servings

Ingredients

Clams: fourty littleneck well scrubbed clams
1/4 cup of extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
10 cloves of garlic, smashed with the back of a knife
1/4 pound of small diced pancetta
1/4 cup of white wine
2 pints of cherry tomatoes, yellow and red, stemmed
1 pound of spaghetti
2 dried red chiles
Handful of fresh basil leaves
Freshly ground black pepper

Directions

First preheat the oven to 400 degrees F and then bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. 

In the meantime, scrub the clams with a stiff brush under cold running water and discard any that are open. Then put a medium roasting pan over two burners.

After that add the olive oil, pancetta,garlic, chiles, and herbs and cook until the pancetta renders, for about 3-4 minutes. Then add the clams, tomatoes, the wine, and a good amount of pepper and toss that all together. After that transfer pan to oven and roast until the clams open, for about ten minutes. Once the clams are cooking, drop the pasta into the water for about 7-8 minutes and then drain. Then dump the drained pasta into a serving bowl, and toss that with clams. In the end garnish with freshly ground black pepper, fresh basil leaves and a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil. Enjoy.