This was my dad’s recipe, and it’s the only recipe that I
actually have of him. He collected many recipes but this is the only one that he actually handed down to me.

He loved to fish, mostly going out for blue fish on Long Island. Sometimes he’d do big fish like marlin or swordfish, but he also went clamming in the Peconic area with his friends. When he went clamming, he would bring the clams home, shuck them himself with a special knife, and make this spaghetti. We all loved to have it because it was made with fresh clams.

When he passed, I didn’t know how to shuck clams, nor did I think I wanted to. I would go to a restaurant in Sheepshead Bay, and buy a dozen and a half clams or two dozen clams and have them shuck them and save the juice for me. It’s hard to find somebody that will actually shuck them for you, so what I have done is make it with bottled clam juice and canned clams, which is absolutely not the way to go. The best way, by far, is with fresh clams, like my dad used to do.