For Queen B & Stony Kurtis: Seafood Linguine

People come and go in your life; some are temporary acquintances and others become lifelong friends.  I have known Bee and Craig (Stony Kurtis is his record label name) for a few years now.  It is refreshing to see that true love and true friendship still exists.  They are a bit of a drive for me but I try to find time to drop in from time to time to touch base.

It's been a couple months since I made my way to their home but I managed to pay them a visit last weekend.  Usually Bee cooks for me and I bring over flowers or plants.  This time I wanted to cook for them and decided it would be fun to be in the kitchen with Bee.  Craig is good old Italian boy and Bee is from the land of smiles, Thailand  I would say its a good match.   Most of the time, we have Bee's concoctions and I thought it would be a good change of pace if I helped cook a traditional Italian dish.  Bee and I decided on SEAFOOD LINGUINE, a tried and true yummy Italian pasta goodness.

This recipe is from Cuisine at Home Perfect Pasta. Issue.

Makes 4 servings
Total time:  about 45 minutes

SIMMER and REDUCE
Shells from 8 large shrimp
1 cup of water
20-30 minutes. Strained & reserved broth


COOK:
1/2 lb. dry linguine
Drain and set aside


SAUTE in 2 T. OLIVE OIL; ADD:
1 t. garlic, minced
1 t. red pepper flakes - medium high heat for 30 seconds then add
1 cup dry white wine
8 medium-sized fresh clams cleaned (cherrystones or littlenecks)
Shrimp broth
Cover and simmer until clam shells open, about 5 minutes


STIR IN; ADD
8 mussels, cleaned
8 large shrimp, peeled, deveined, until mussels open, about 2-3 minutes
Discard any clams or mussels that haven't opened at this point then add
Cooked linguine
1/4 lb. calamari rings
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley; toss with tongs for 2-3 minutes, or just until calamari is cooked
Salt to taste


FINISH WITH:
 Olive Oil

CLEANING CLAMS:  
No one likes to taste sand in their mouth, especially in food.  For hardshell clams, scrub the shells with a stiff brush, then rinse in cold water.  Softshell clams (razors & steamers) must be soaked for about 3 hours in heavily salted water until they purge out the sand.