pasta and chardonnay

More. Pasta. It must be the cool of winter that has me craving cheese, meat, and wheaty noodles. This recipe is a little on the lighter side of things and it's from Dave's repertoire: linguini with clams. Easy, fast and good. We had it with a little Chardonnay.

During my last stock-up shopping trip at the LCBO I wandered past this bottle of Cono Sur organic Chardonnay and my left arm just lept out and grabbed it. I quite like the Cono Sur Viognier, for the price it's a decent glass of white, so I was curious about this Chard.

This would be a great sipping wine on a warm summer's day. It has some ripe aromas of peaches, pineapple and even a little butterscotch, but is crisper on the palate with simple pink grapefruit and lemon. It was good with the clams; the lemon countered the richness of the sauce and paired well with the fish ($11.95).

Dave's Linguine with Clams
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsly
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 X 6.5 ounce can clams, drained, juices reserved
1/4 cup whipping cream
1/4 cup dry white wine
1/8 tsp cayenne
salt and pepper
1/4 lb linguine
grated parmesan

-heat oil in large pan and saute garlic for a minute or two
-add reserved clam juices, whipping cream, wine, cayenne and salt and pepper and allow to reduce to a thin sauce consistency (about 5 - 10 minutes)
-add clams and cooked linguine to pan and toss until sauce coats the pasta
-add as much parmesan as you please with the parsley and toss
-serve with a sprinkle of parmesan
-serves two