Spaghetti with Clams…and a Super Tuscan

Spaghetti with Clams is one of the dishes I order whenever I’m in an Italian restaurant near the ocean. When it’s good, it’s food of the gods. When it’s mediocre, I’d rather skip the pasta and order a second bottle of wine!

Spaghetti with Clams at Vinoteca Ristorante is made the traditional Italian way… with a buttery sauce and ultra-fresh clams. The bonus is there are also a few perfectly cooked prawns on the plate.

​The owner of the restaurant, Rafael Ciniglio, has several things going for him. First, he’s Italian. Cooking is in his blood. Second, he attended the CIA in the US. No, he wasn’t a super-spy; he attended the Culinary Institute of America in New York. What his motherland didn’t give him, great training did. And finally, he owns his restaurant with his daughter. Family restaurants taste better because the food is made with love and pride. Every time I eat at this restaurant, the food is sensational. Every time, Rafael is hovering over his patrons, recommending dishes and working with the kitchen crew to make sure everything is perfect. No wonder his restaurant wins awards year after year.

This picture doesn’t do justice to how many clams were hidden in this average-sized bowl. There were so many clams that I was literally exhausted from picking clams out of the shells. (Imagine!) I went with a small group of friends, and one of the other people got this exact same dish. When everyone else was done eating, we were still hunting for clams. We were making jokes about how we should have brought a sleeping bag. But even after my body was tired, I continued to eat the delectable little morsels.

To me, the perfect clam sauce is a combination of white wine, butter, lemon, garlic, and a bit of red pepper to keep it from getting dull. But the most important ingredient is ultra-fresh clams.

Normally I would have paired this Spaghetti with Clams (or Spaghetti with Prawns) with a buttery Chardonnay to bring out the butter flavor of the clam sauce, but we were celebrating (and a client was paying!). We enjoyed this with a Tenuta San Guido Sassicaia, arguably the first Super Tuscan from Italy. This is a pricey wine at the wine store, but in the restaurant, it was about $400 for a normal-sized bottle. For a wine of that caliber (and price), I wouldn’t have cared if I were pairing the wine with cereal. I enjoyed both the wine and the spaghetti with clams and prawns tremendously. Perhaps they were so good together because of how much I cherished them both separately. Or perhaps it was the fun evening of great conversation. Bottom line: This is a dish I will definitely order again, and when I do, if I’m paying the bill, I’ll pair it with a California Chardonnay.

Let me know your favorite restaurants for Spaghetti with Clams. Or Linguine with Clams. Just shout it out in the comments below.