The image I conjure of pasta with clams has an aspirational sort of purity to it. A tangle of bronze-extruded pasta and just-opened clams in their shells are slicked with a glossy sauce of wine, olive oil, garlic and the clams' briny liquor. Green parsley and red chile flake lend occasional shocks of color to this otherwise muted, luscious composition. Its unspoken caption reads, "Nowhere to hide here!"
I am a believer in paying a little extra for excellent pasta, which provides a flavor backbone of its own, much like I'd rather cook with wine that I like drinking. But because I live in a landlocked place, I can't get the freshest wild-harvested clams, which are the inarguable star of this dish. So, long ago, I resolved to find ways to make this dish delicious with canned clams, which are tasty in their own right and quite affordable.
