Clams in January

While I was at work today Bill and the kids went digging for clams.  Yep, in January.  After about an hour and a half of digging they brought home fifteen pounds total.  Mostly little necks, with about a dozen steamers, a razor clam, and two oysters.

We had some little necks on the half shell a few minutes ago, we’ll steam some of the rest (steamers, oysters, razor clam and a few more of the hard shell clams), and eat those dipped in melted butter.

And Bill made fettuccini earlier, so we’ll cook the rest of the clams and serve them over the pasta.

Julia helped crank out the pasta.

But wait!  There’s more!

Not only do we have the fettuccini, but we also (and firstly) have ravioli that Bill made. 

He’s been on a ravioli kick lately. 

Squash ravioli to be precise.

This is what’s left of our winter squash haul.

We’ve made all sorts of things (pie, muffins, bread, biscotti, cooked purees, roasted cubes of it) with our fabulous squash, and most recently Bill has been making squash filling for ravioli.

A lot has gone into the freezer, but we’re having this small batch as part of dinner.  Besides the squash (which was first roasted beside the fire, scooped from the skin, and strained), the filling also contains garlic, leeks, oregano, basil, olive oil, salt and pepper.  Pretty simple stuff.  But so good.  Our favorite way to heat the ravioli is (after boiling) adding it to browned sage butter.

I know, we are partial to browned sage butter ‘round here.  It’s good stuff.

So that’s what’s going on here today.

Oh – and I’m baking bread.  The dough really likes the warmth from our fireplace.  It rose quickly. 

Oh!  And have you ever seen a live razor clam?  Me either!  But here’s a look:

See that pale, slug-like thing in the middle of the picture, coming out of the end of the razor clam shell?  That’s it.  That’s the razor clam.  Or part of it.  It seemed to be looking around for a place to burrow.  Hard to do with stainless steel.

Razor clams are pretty strong.  When Bill was poking through this bowl counting clams, he moved one of the oysters (which was attached to a rock) over kind of on the razor clam, and the razor clam moved it. 

Sorry I don’t have video footage for you. 

And that’s the anticlimactic end to my story.

Bread’s in the oven, and we’ll start shellfish and assorted pasta in an hour or so.