Garlicky Littleneck Clams with Bacon + Wine Over Sautéed Spring Veggies

A bed of sautéed veggies makes the perfect base for this bacon-loaded seafood dish. Make sure you have plenty of crusty bread for dunking!

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Guys. Have you heard about Bacon Month?

My friend Julie over at Bread Booze Bacon is hosting her 5th Annual Bacon Month celebration, and I was stoked to hop on board with a rockin' team of bloggers to celebrate all things bacon-centric for the next 4 Wednesdays.

I figured I should kick things off with a bang by combining a few of my very favorite ingredients for this week's Bacon Month contribution:

Bacon. Wine. Seafood.

Now before I get too far ahead of myself, let me introduce you to the people who will LITERALLY be bringin' home the bacon for our August celebration...

Bread Booze Bacon | Cooking in Stilettos | Big Flavors From a Tiny Kitchen

Rants From My Crazy Kitchen | Kleinworth & Co. | Live Laugh Rowe

Served Up with Love | Kudos Kitchen by Renee | Wholesome Yum

We'll each be sharing a different bacon-centric recipe for the next 4 weeks - that's 9 new bacon recipes each and every week!

And if that's not enough bacon-y goodness, you can also check out my other bacon recipes or grab bacon recipes from Julie's previous Bacon Months too!

And now, onto my luscious bacon and clam recipe!

I actually made this recipe back in May after a beautiful day at my local Farmers Market. It was an absolutely beautiful day, and there were a ton of inspiring ingredients at the various vendors' booths.

The first thing that caught my eye was some gorgeous littleneck clams. If you haven't heard of littleneck clams before, Wikipedia has you covered with this info on hard clams:

In fish markets, there are specialist names for different sizes of this species of clam. The smallest legally harvestable clams are called countnecks, next size up are littlenecks, then topnecks. Above that are the cherrystones, and the largest are called quahogs or chowder clams.

Littlenecks are nice because they're small and cook up really quickly. Just make sure you give them a soak to remove any grit, followed by a good scrub before cooking with them.

After purchasing some clams, I was at a produce vendor grabbing a few veggies when I saw my friend Luis, who owns the local coffee shop in my town (which, by the way, is fabulous and just won Best of Westchester's Best Latte! Yay, Ossining!!).

Luis saw the items that I was getting and started buying the same things, joking around that he was copying my shopping.

I already had some tomatoes and asparagus, so he grabbed those, and I saw that he was eyeing the shiitake mushrooms, so I snagged a few of those as well.

We jokingly turned it into a contest to see who could make a better meal with the ingredients we bought.

After plenty of laughs, I came home with a bounty of beautiful ingredients and started thinking about what I wanted to cook with them.

I love any dish that encourages the sopping up of juices with a nice piece of crusty bread (bonus points if that bread is grilled and garlic-rubbed!) and this dish is no exception!

I cooked the veggies in one skillet and let them sit off to the side while I got the bacon nice and crispy in another pot, then steamed the clams in wine.

When cooking clams, make sure to keep an eye on them. You want to stop the cooking process as soon as they all open up. The longer they sit on the heat after they've opened, the more likely they are to overcook. And nobody likes a rubbery clam.

If any of your clams don't open up, they're no good and should be discarded.

These clams turned out to be nice and plump, and when paired with all that smoky bacon... YUM.

I really enjoyed the mix of veggies and meat in this dish, and my family absolutely loved it as well. This made just the right amount of food for me, my husband, and our 5-year-old. It could definitely be stretched to 4 servings if you had a salad or some other side dish to go with it.

You can also easily just add some more clams to the pot to up the number of servings you'll get out of this recipe. It's total date night food, too, and it doesn't take forever to prepare.

Now that's my kind of meal!

Curious to see what everyone else is whipping up for this week's bacon extravaganza? Check out the full list here:

Crock Pot Bacon Ranch Cheesy Chicken Hash

Bacon Wrapped Sweet Pepper Poppers

Garlicky Littleneck Clams with Bacon + Wine

Brown Sugar Bacon Wrapped Chicken Bites

Bacon & Ranch Slow Cooker Potatoes

BLT Skewers with Grilled Cheese Bites

Zucchini Noodle Salad with Bacon and Tomatoes

Bacon Cheddar Ranch Chicken Salad

Bacon Caramelized Onion Dip

Looking for more of my own bacon favorites? Check out these 5-star recipes:

• Instant Pot Chicken, Bacon, and Potato Soup
• Red Lentil Fusilli with Bacon, Butternut Squash, and Spinach
• Instant Pot “Baked” Beans
• Cheesy Bacon + Apple Croissants
• Bacon and Caramelized Onion Jam
• Maple Roasted Butternut Squash Pizza with Brussels Sprouts, Bacon + Pomegranate
• Single-Skillet Bacon-Rosemary Chicken Thighs with Roasted Tomatoes
• Bourbon Bacon Pecan Pie with a Whole Wheat Crust
• Bacon and Caramelized Onion Jam Naan Pizza with Gorgonzola and Apples

Garlicky Littleneck Clams with Bacon + Wine Over Sautéed Spring Veggies

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• Author: Big Flavors from a Tiny Kitchen - Ashley Covelli
• Prep Time: 10 minutes
• Cook Time: 20 minutes
• Total Time: 30 minutes
• Yield: 2-3 Servings 1x
• Category: DInner
• Method: Stovetop
• Cuisine: Italian

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Description

A bed of sautéed veggies makes the perfect base for this bacon-loaded seafood dish. Make sure you have plenty of crusty bread for dunking!

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Ingredients

Units USM Scale 1x2x3x

For Veggies:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons thinly sliced shallot (about ½ of a medium-large shallot)
• 2 heads Shanghai bok choy, stem end removed, then cut into 1-inch wide slices, dark green parts separated
• ½ cup sliced shiitake caps (from about 10 mushrooms)
• ¾ cup chopped tomatoes
• 1 bunch asparagus (about 12 stalks), trimmed and cut into 1-inch long pieces
• ½ cup water
• Kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper, to taste

For Clams:

• 5-6 slices bacon, sliced into lardons (about 1 cup total)
• 2 cloves garlic, smashed
• 2 tablespoons thinly sliced shallot (about ½ of a medium-large shallot)
• ¾ cup chopped tomatoes
• 24 little neck clams, soaked and scrubbed
• ½ cup white wine (I used Pinot Grigio)
• Fresh snipped chives, for serving (optional)
• Crusty bread, for dunking (optional)

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Instructions

1. For Veggies: Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add garlic and shallot and cook until fragrant and starting to soften, about 1-2 minutes. Add the thick ends of the bok choy to the skillet, season with salt and pepper, and sauté, stirring occasionally, until they start to get tender, about 3 minutes.
2. Reduce heat to medium and add the dark green ends of the bok choy, mushrooms, and tomatoes to the pan and season with salt and pepper. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until the tomato melts down into the rest of the veggies. Add asparagus and water and cook until the asparagus is just tender. Set aside, covered, to keep warm while you prepare the clams.
3. For Clams: Place bacon in a large saucepan and cook over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally. until crispy. Remove bacon to a paper towel lined plate and discard all but 1-2 tablespoons of the bacon grease from the pan.
4. Add garlic and shallot to the pan and cook until they start to brown, stirring occasionally, about 2 minutes. Add tomato and let cook for another minute or 2 until it melts down a bit. Add clams to the pan along with wine and cover with a tight-fitting lid. Cook, covered, until the clams are fully opened, about 5 minutes. Remove lid and scatter bacon over the cooked clams.
5. Serve clams on top of the sautéed veggies with snipped chives scattered on top and a side of crusty bread for dunking, if desired.

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Nutrition

• Serving Size:
• Calories: 603
• Sugar: 9.4 g
• Sodium: 1140.2 mg
• Fat: 43.6 g
• Saturated Fat: 11.7 g
• Carbohydrates: 24.4 g
• Fiber: 6.4 g
• Protein: 30.8 g
• Cholesterol: 78.6 mg

Keywords: littleneck clams, bacon, white wine sauce

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