Made for Each Other
Like beans and rice or caviar and champagne, pork and clams - a classic combination in Portuguese cooking - belong together.
The culinary duo of pork and clams came to New England with Portuguese settlers, who also drove much of the region's commercial fishing. In the many traditional recipes, the pork can take many forms - fresh, bacon, ham, or sausage, in particular, the paprika-accented linguica and garlicky chourico (similar to Spanish chorizo) varieties. Here are interpretations of two classic Portuguese dishes. In Porco a Alentejana, fresh pork is central while the clams take a supporting role. The positions are reversed in Ameijoas na Cataplana, with clams as the stars, supported by both ham and sausage.
CLAMS CATAPLANA
SERVES 6
Serve Ameijoas na Cataplana, as the dish is known in Portuguese, with crusty bread to dip into the sauce (and a lot of napkins). Adapted from The Food of Portugal, by Jean Anderson (Hearst Books), and Portuguese Homestyle Cooking, by Ana Patuleia Ortins (Interlink Books).
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 medium onions, thinly sliced
4 ounces prosciutto, chopped
1/2 pound chourico sausage, thinly sliced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 bay leaf
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
3 tablespoons chopped cilantro
1 14 1/2-ounce can diced tomatoes, with juices
1 8-ounce can tomato sauce
6 dozen littleneck clams, scrubbed
3/4 cup dry white wine
3 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup chopped Italian parsley
In a large Dutch oven or soup kettle set over medium heat, heat the olive oil until it shimmers. Add the onions and cook, stirring often, until soft, about 6 minutes. Add the prosciutto and sausage and continue cooking, stirring often, until sausage is fragrant and heated through, about 3 minutes. Add the garlic, bay leaf, red pepper, and cilantro and cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 40 seconds. Add the diced tomatoes and tomato sauce, stir to incorporate, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the flavors have blended and the sauce has thickened, about 10 minutes. Add the clams and wine, cover pot, increase heat to medium-high, and cook until clams open, about 15 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to transfer opened clams to a large bowl, and set aside. (Continue cooking any clams that are not yet open for another five to 10 minutes, but discard any clams that do not open after a total of 25 minutes.) Off heat, add the butter to the pot and stir until the butter melts and incorporates into the sauce, about 2 minutes. Add 3 tablespoons of the parsley and stir to mix. Return the clams to the pot, stir to coat them with the sauce, sprinkle with the remaining tablespoon of parsley, and serve at once.
PORK WITH CLAMS A ALENTEJANA
SERVES 6
I prefer pork loin roast from the juicier blade end, but any pork loin roast will do. You can substitute boneless pork butt, but it's more difficult to trim and takes a little longer to cook. This is also adapted from The Food of Portugal and Portuguese Homestyle Cooking.
5 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/2 tablespoons sweet paprika
1/4 cup olive oil
2 1/2 pounds boneless pork loin roast, trimmed and cut into 1 1/2-inch cubes
4 large bay leaves
1 1/2 cups dry white wine
1 large onion, chopped
Pinch ground cloves
1 14 1/2-ounce can diced tomatoes, with juices
4 medium red-skinned potatoes, scrubbed and cut into 1 1/2-inch cubes
3 dozen littleneck clams, scrubbed
2 tablespoons chopped Italian parsley
3 tablespoons chopped cilantro
In a medium nonreactive bowl, place 1 minced garlic clove and the kosher salt and use the back of a wooden spoon to mash them together into a paste. Add the paprika and 1 tablespoon of olive oil and mix. Add the pork cubes and toss to coat them with the seasoning paste; add 2 bay leaves, each one broken in half, and 1 cup wine. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate, turning the pork once or twice, at least 6 hours, and preferably overnight.
Using tongs, remove the pork pieces and dry them well with paper towels. Strain the marinade, discard the solids, and reserve the liquid. In a large Dutch oven or soup kettle set over medium-high heat, heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil until shimmering. Add half of the pork in a single layer but not touching (do not crowd pan), and cook without moving them until deeply browned on the bottom, about 3 minutes. Turn the pieces and cook, again without moving, until second side is deeply browned, about 3 minutes longer. Transfer the pork to a medium bowl, add 1 tablespoon of oil to the empty pot and cook the remaining pork.
Reduce the heat to medium under the empty pot and add the last tablespoon of oil, then add the onion. Stir to coat with the oil and cook, stirring often, until onion softens, about 4 minutes. Add the remaining minced garlic and 2 bay leaves and the ground cloves, and cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 40 seconds. Add the remaining 1/2 cup of wine, increase the heat to high, and, using a wooden spoon, scrape the bottom of the pot until the drippings dissolve, about 2 minutes. Add the tomatoes and the strained marinade and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Add the cooked pork with accumulated juices, push it down into the liquid, bring to a boil, reduce heat to very low, cover, and simmer until the pork is very tender, about 40 minutes (or 1 hour if using pork butt). Add potatoes and clams, increase heat to medium, replace the cover, and simmer until the potatoes are tender and the clams open, about 15 minutes. (Continue cooking any clams that are not yet open for another five to 10 minutes, but discard any clams that do not open after a total of 25 minutes.) Add the parsley and cilantro, stir to distribute, and serve at once.
Send comments or suggestions to Adam Ried at cooking@globe.com.
