Stuffed Baked Clams
Ingredients:
2 slices bacon, diced small
1 pound Manila clams, rinsed and scrubbed
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup white wine
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 cup minced shallot
1/2 cup dry plain breadcrumbs
kosher salt and pepper to taste, plus approximately 3/4 cup
kosher salt
1/4 cup freshly grated Romano cheese
2 tablespoons chopped Italian parsley
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a small pan brown the bacon pieces. Strain and set aside.
Place clams in a saute pan. Add water, wine and garlic. Cover and cook over medium heat until opened about 3-5 minutes. (Note: Discard any that do not open, that means that they were dead to begin with and not safe to eat.). Remove clams and set aside to cool. Reserve liquid in a bowl.
Once your clams have cooled enough for you to touch them, remove the clam meat from the shell. (Note: I like to do this over the bowl of reserved liquid so that I can keep the yummy clam juice.) Roughly chop the clam meat.
Separate the clam shells at the hinges. Rinse and reserve about 15 of the nicest shells.
In a bowl combine the chopped clam meat, bacon, shallots, bread crumbs and 3 tablespoons of the reserved liquid . Mixture should be wet, add more liquid if mixture seems too dry or more bread crumbs if it seems to wet. Using about a teaspoon of the mixture, spoon the mixture into the reserved clam shells.
In a pie pan or a dish big enough to hold all of the shells, make a layer of kosher salt. Set the stuffed shells on top of the salt. Sprinkle with grated Romano cheese. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until stuffing turns golden brown.
Remove from oven, sprinkle with fresh parsley. Serve. I like to serve these in the baking dish because I think the salt bed makes a beautiful presentation.
