White clam sauce

[jaybee]

Dear Lidia,

I was one of your earlest customers at Felidia's back in the early 1980's and the food just captivated me. I enjoy your PBS shows and learn a lot from them. One dish I enjoy so much is linguine con vongole. It is the essence of simplicity with few ingredients, yet few people make it really well. Would you descibe your technique for this dish and include "do's and don't's", specific ingrdients (type of clams, etc)?

[Lidia Bastianich]

Not over working it is at the base of this simplistic dish but with it comes the difficulty of treating each ingredient properly. You can't over cook the clams, and they need to be the freshest possible. The oil needs to be at its best, and you can't overheat it. And it's very important that you don't burn the garlic.

To keep it all juicy, do not underestimate the cooking pasta water. Add a little bit to the mix.