Good morning. This past June, I spent a glorious afternoon at a beach on northern Long Island, foraging for dinner with my toes. That is to say, I went clamming. And while I shuffled my feet in waist-deep water, my brilliant colleagues on the New York Times Cooking video team captured the whole adventure, so you can see it here. I go clamming as many times as I possibly can during the summer months. I love the quiet, meditative aspect, and harvesting a meal is much more satisfying than buying it in a supermarket, or even from the farmers’ market. I’ve never been mushroom hunting (yet), but I imagine it’s a similar thrill — even though forest bathing for chanterelles is pretty different from actually bathing for bivalves. It can be difficult for city dwellers to achieve that kind of immediate connection to their ingredients, but the more I manage to do it, the happier I become.
She finds clamshells by the seashoreMy favorite post-clamming ritual involves turning my catch into clam pasta with white wine and garlic. I created this recipe specifically for foraged clams, which are bigger and gnarlier than the pristine littlenecks or cockles you can buy. Here, the clams are steamed in wine and removed from their shells. Then I strain the steaming liquid to use as the briny foundation of the sauce. But, of course, you can also make this dish with purchased clams or mussels, or even canned clams if a trip to the shore isn’t feasible. Clams are always happy to oblige. View this recipe: Clam pasta with white wine and garlic Recipes for your weekToday’s recipe selection features some new friends — a baked mushroom Marsala pasta from Dan Pelosi, and a salty-sweet kale and date salad from Ali Slagle — as well as some old favorites (if you haven’t yet made Yewande Komolafe’s sheet-pan gochujang chicken, you are in for a treat). For a limited time, you can enjoy free access to the recipes in this newsletter in our app. Download it on your iOS or Android device and create a free account to get started. And before you goSpeaking of connecting to your ingredients, Pete Wells recently wrote about the chef Eric Ripert’s new cookbook, “Mindful Cooking: Simple Recipes for Nurturing Body and Soul.” Along with about 90 plant-based recipes (including a gorgeous salad pancake), Pete writes, Ripert illustrates how focus, gratitude and joy can guide us in the kitchen, and make cooking a more profound and meaningful experience. That’s all for now. See you tomorrow. Melissa Clark has been writing about food for The New York Times since 1997 and is the author of 46 cookbooks. Her latest is “The Big Book of Dinner,” coming in November. You can reach her at hellomelissa@nytimes.com. Editors: Mia Leimkuhler and Li Goldstein. Host photo by Melanie Dunea. For help with your New York Times Cooking subscription, please email cookingcare@nytimes.com. Was this email forwarded to you? You can sign up for our New York Times Cooking newsletter here.
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