Spanish Beans and Clams

I have been craving clams for a while now and finally went to Bob's Seafood (best STL seafood place) to pick some up. They definitely did not disappoint! My go to clam recipe is linguine and clams, which I will have to put on FT sometime soon, but this time I decided to try something different. After looking around for a while I came up with this recipe and will come back to it again for entertaining purposes since it was so good and not hard to make.

Recipe adapted from The Heart of New England and photos by FT - Food Tasty!

Beans
Four generous portions:

1 pound dried beans, such as pinto, navy or lima, rinsed and soaked overnight (I used Great Northern beans since they are my favorite) or boiled as below
1 medium onion, diced
6 cloves garlic, minced
2 bay leaves
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 carrot, peeled and sliced
2 teaspoons sea or kosher salt

Rinse and soak the beans overnight or cover with water and bring to a boil for
15 minutes and then remove from heat and soak for 15 minutes. Drain the
beans and place all ingredients except the salt into a pot and add water to
cover by 1 ½ inches.

Bring the beans to a boil and then reduce the heat so that they just simmer.
Skim off any foam. Cook them, loosely covered, until done, 1 – 2 hours,
checking occasionally to add water if necessary. Add the salt and set the beans
aside.

Clams:

24 littleneck or mahogany clams, rinsed and soaked in heavily salted water for
1 hour
6 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 medium onion, diced
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
Generous pinch of saffron (I didn't use this)
1 tablespoon Spanish paprika (not smoked)
¼ cup chopped parsley
1/3 cup dry white wine (I used dry vermouth)
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
Coarsely ground black pepper to taste
Sea or kosher salt, as needed

Heat a large heavy sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add the olive oil, and,
when the oil shimmers, add the onion, garlic and pepper flakes. Stir until the
onions are soft but not browned. Add the clams, cover the pan and cook,
shaking the pan occasionally until the clams are opened. If smaller clams open
soon, remove them and set them aside.

When all clams are opened, return any previously removed. Spread the
paprika and parsley over the clams, add the saffron to the wine and add to the
pan, along with several grinds of black pepper. Cover and cook for five
minutes.

Reheat the beans in a large sauté or frying pan while the clams finish.

Pour the clams and all juices and contents over the beans and stir the juices
into the beans. Serve with the clams on top of the beans.

Traditionally, this is served with crusty bread and a full bodied white wine.
Click here for a printable version of this recipe.
Enjoy! Sheri