The easiest and tastiest Garlic Clams Recipe. Small wild clams sauteed with olive oil, garlic & lots of fresh citrus juice served with garlic bruschetta to soak up all the amazing juices.
The las time I ordered a bucket of garlic clams was a couple of weeks ago at a seafood restaurant in Kauai.
It made me ask myself, why don’t I make garlic clams at home more often …? They are really easy to throw together and extremely fast. Plus we love garlic clams at the shack.
So I decided I was gonna come home and first time I see wild caught clams at the market, it’s going down.
Luckily we still have a couple of loaded tomato plants in the garden as well, I just love to throw some in with the garlic before adding in the baby clams.
I used a yellow heirloom tomato this time, hence the golden sauce; but really whatever color you have on hand will be delicious. I do recognize a difference in taste between the different colors of tomatoes, however I love them all.
I did skip the splash of wine in this version of the recipe, and loaded on freshly squeezed lemon juice to balance out all that garlic. Because clams are going to spit out a lot of salty sea water the moment they start opening up, it really isn’t necessary to hit them with the wine. Unless you really want to of course, in which case splash away kids.
A minor but crucial detail when making these garlic clams: don’t be scared of the garlic!
These are garlic clams served with garlic tomato bruschetta to mop up all those clam juices. So load up really nice, you can add more if you like but definitely not less.
If you like you can forget about bruschetta, boil some pasta and turn this into an insane squid ink Linguine Vongole.
- 3 lb baby clams
- 12 cloves large garlic grated + more to taste
- 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil + more for finish
- 1 large yellow heirloom tomato diced
- A pinch of sea salt
- The juice from 2 juicy limes + extra wedges for serving
- 1/4 c flat leaf parsley minced
- Bruschetta for serving
- In an extra large stainless steel skillet heat up the olive oil on medium-low flame. Add the garlic and quickly stir with a spatula. Cook it for about 15-20 seconds until it releases its flavors but don’t let it get any color.
- Add the diced tomatoes to the pan with the garlic and stir to combine. Add the clams and squeeze in the lemon juice. Cover with a lid, preferably glass so you can see when all the clams have opened up. After about 3-5 minutes all clams will have opened up, discard any that did not.
- Remove from flame, taste and adjust seasonings with sea salt. Finish with a nice drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and sprinkle with the fresh parsley.
- Serve hot with lemon wedges and garlicky bruschetta.
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