1. Antipasti (appetizers), Secondi di Pesce (fish dishes)

Stuffies (Rhode Island Stuffed Clams)

Quahogs are a type of large clams. In New England and especially Rhode Island they are prepared stuffed and then called “stuffies”. Since quahogs are not available in the Netherlands, I used a fairly large type of clams called “sea almonds”.

Since it is hard to estimate how much clam meat you will get out of clams, you first cook the clams and relate the amount of the other ingredients to how much clam meat you end up with.

Ingredients

large clams

dry chorizo, diced

stale bread crumbs

green bell pepper, diced

grated cheese

minced onion

minced fresh flat leaf parsley

butter

garlic, minced

dry white wine

To serve

lemon wedges

hot sauce

Instructions

Place the clams in a saucepan and add a splash of white wine.

Cover and bring to a boil until the first clams open.

Remove the clams as they open.

Discard any clams that after 10 minutes have not opened.

Reserve the clam liquid that is left in the saucepan. Take the clam meat out of the shells, reserving both meat and shells.

Chop the clam meat and measure how much you have. Suppose you have 1 cup clam meat. Then you will need:

1/4 cup onion

1/4 cup green bell pepper

1/2 cup breadcrumbs

1/4 cup diced chorizo

2 garlic cloves

1 Tbsp minced parsley

Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a frying pan. Add the onion and bell pepper.

Stir over medium heat until the onion starts to color.

Add the chorizo and garlic, and stir for a minute longer. Turn off the heat.

Add the breadcrumbs…

…chopped clam meat, and parsley.

Stir everything, adding as much of the reserved clam juice as needed to end up with a mixture that is moist but not wet.

Taste and adjust the seasoning with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Stuff the reserved shells with the mixture.

Sprinkle them with grated cheese. I used parmigiano, but that doesn’t melt very well unless you add butter or oil.

Bake the clams for 20 minutes at 180C/350F or until the cheese has melted and is golden.

Serve with lemon wedges and hot sauce.

Flashback

Pasta con le sarde is a very typical pasta dish from Sicily with a unique flavor. The main ingredients are pasta and sardines as the name implies, but also wild fennel (finocchietto). The latter ingredient may be hard to find outside of Italy, but luckily dill is an acceptable substitute. As with many Sicilian dishes it also includes pine nuts and raisins.

20 thoughts on “Stuffies (Rhode Island Stuffed Clams)”

    1. There are many Europeans following my blog and I am European myself. In all my other recipes I provide amounts in grams. But in this case it is by volume. It will also work if you use a cup of a different size than as standard US cup.

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  5. *smile* Have never been to New England and ‘quahogs’ is but a name I have heard. But I do love clams and the recipe does appeal . . . just not the fact that the poor molluscs are cut up . . . shall make my own trials to see whether it is viable to use the beasties whole . . .

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