red clam sauce

fresh peppery-parsley, crisp green pepper, and pungent garlic are mellowed for several hours with olive oil, clams, and passata to bring forth this marinara.

this clam sauce pours like lava over a big bowl of homemade linguine and every time i eat it i am comforted and satisfied with its unctuous, sweet, seafood taste . . . a long simmer marries the ingredients so that i cannot discern where one flavor ends and the next one begins.

the recipe for this clam sauce came to me from an old friend i have lost touch with, so i have no idea its origins. i remember amy giving me a recipe card in her hand writing after being hypnotized by its spell at her house for dinner. since then, i have copied it onto my own recipe card, and made only one change– i no longer put parmesan into the sauce because i could never get it to blend well. instead, i just spoon it on top.
     i could eat this clam sauce and homemade linguine every day and never tire of it. it is my husband's most requested dish. when i serve it at a dinner party, i set the table with a fork and spoon, and encourage guests to go ahead and raise both elbows so they can fill up with the full effect of this dish's allure.
ingredients
• 4 cloves of minced garlic
• about 1/3 cup of olive oil
• a large handful of chopped parsley
• 1 tbl. oregano
• 1/4 cup of minced green pepper
• two 6 & 1/2 oz. cans of chopped clams
• about 8 oz. of passata (use tom. sauce as an alt.)
directions
1. saute the garlic in the olive oil to release the fragrance, but don't brown it.
2. stir in the parsley, oregano, and green pepper. cook until bubbling, stirring with a wooden spoon.
3. add the clams and all of their juice along with the passata and bring it to a low boil.
4. reduce the heat to a low-low-simmer and cook for an hour or so until it thickens and unites the ingredients.
5. adjust the seasoning if needed with kosher salt.