Web Exclusive… Clams and Shrimp Posillipo With Linguine Adapted from The Palm Restaurant Cookbook: Recipes and Stories from the Classic American Steakhouse by Brigit Legere Binns

(Serves 4)

• Kosher salt, for cooking the pasta
• ½ cup olive oil
• 6 to 8 cloves garlic, crushed with the side of a large, heavy knife
• 20 small clams, preferably from eastern waters, scrubbed clean
• 3 whole basil leaves, plus ¼ cup julienned basil leaves, for serving
• Pinch of crushed red pepper
• Two 28-ounce cans peeled Italian plum tomatoes, drained well, core ends removed
• 1 ½ cups dry white wine
• Fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 20 extra-large shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 1 pound imported dry linguine
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped flat-leaf parsley

Place a large pot of water over high heat, add 1 tablespoon salt, and bring to a boil.

Place a saucepan over medium heat, and add the oil. When the oil is hot, add the garlic. Sauté for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Do not allow the garlic to burn. Add the clams, whole basil leaves, and crushed red pepper. Cover and cook, shaking the pan gently once or twice, for 3 minutes. Add the tomatoes (crushing them with your hands), the wine, ¼ teaspoon salt, and a generous grinding of pepper. Cover and simmer, occasionally shaking the pan gently, for 10 to 12 minutes, until the clams have opened. Remove the pan from the heat. Add the shrimp, and cover. They will cook very gently in the residual heat of the sauce.

When the water boils, add the linguine, and cook for 10 to 11 minutes, until al dente (firm to the bite). Just before the pasta is cooked, taste the clam and shrimp sauce for seasoning, and return, covered, to medium heat. Discard any clams that remain closed. Drain the linguine well, and mound into warmed pasta bowls. Top with equal amounts of the sauce and shellfish, alternating the clams and shrimp around the edges of the bowl. Scatter with the julienned basil and parsley, and serve at once.