Pesto Linguine with Clams

Want to know why I enjoy reading posts by foodies that are actually the foods they eat sitting down at their dinner table. I follow a few posts and I think maybe two out of the ten or so, actually posts about real deal meals.
Diabetes is an everyday problem, not just a once a week deal. They need to make good food choices every day of their lives but most recipes I see posted on the ADA and other Diabetes Sites are the usual roasted chicken breast with a side of boring steamed vegetables.  BLAH!
A Diabetic diet is not like a gluten-free, Vegan or Paleo diet. Diabetics have to customize their foods to how their body digests them, so some can eat pasta and rice (sparingly) and others can not touch a carb of any kind. But their meals should also be full of flavor. At one recipe a week, it will take me one year to make less than 2 months worth of recipes. What's up with that?
While tomorrow I am buying a lamp made for taking food pics when I can't snap a pic during daylight (at least half the year), I am going to just make an extra serving that can be stylized the next day when I have the light and the time to devote to making a more appealing finished product.
Here goes with the first installment......
I told The Nudge that I was putting something with clams and mussels on the menu this upcoming week and he was in total agreement. I also confessed that I was craving pasta and he nearly jumped out of his seat.
"Yeah, I could do pasta, too! Been a while. How about that linguine and clams you were talking about?"
Wow, I can' t remember the last time he asked for linguine and clams. I save that for when he's traveling. Clams are my favorite food of all time.
Right now Arlene is paying us a visit (raining cats, dogs and groundhogs) so there will be no going to the store for clams. That leaves bottled clam broth and canned chopped clams. It's OK, I can live with that but to add some freshness to the sauce, I had the idea of adding a fresh component to the dish in the form of basil pesto and some thinly sliced lemon.
I did not want to take away from the flavor of the clams and pesto can easily overpower a dish. I like the taste of clams. There had to be a way, so I started thinking of how I have seen flavor infused into bland foods like rice and risotto when an idea hit me.
Why not boil the pasta in a pesto flavored water? I don't mean the technique of slowly simmering the pasta in spoonfuls of hot stock, I mean boiling the pasta in water flavored with pesto and I mean a minimum of 2 tablespoons per quart of water.
Diabetics can not eat starchy foods and risotto is all about creating a starchy sauce (boy do I miss that....sigh), but there is nothing wrong with cooking the pasta in a highly flavored but small amount of water until al dente, then rinsing all the starch off.
You may be thinking, why not just add the cooked pasta to a sauce, doesn't that allow the pasta to soak up flavor? Yes, it would but, if I let already al dente pasta sit in a sauce to absorb the flavor, it will naturally swell to a consistency that is not good for a diabetic. Over cooked anything will raise blood sugar faster than a teaspoon of sugar.
I would then made a wonderfully flavored garlicy clam sauce to toss with the pesto pasta, just long enough to heat it through. If it did not work, hey, it's only pasta, not filet mignon.
My head is spinning, I need to focus.....lol
I am happy to announce that the experiment was a 100% success. The pasta had a light taste of basil and the texture of the cooked pasta was that of what regular boiled in water pasta is.
Yes, you should never rinse cooked pasta but in this case, until I can compare the data, I needed to rinse off the excess starch. Cooking it less al dente might leave enough starch on the pasta to thicken the sauce but that will have to wait till the next time.
For now I simmered the sauce to thicken.
Pesto Linguine with Clam Sauce
Prep time: 15 minutes
Unattended time: 30 minutes
Makes: 4 servings
* 12 ounces boxed linguine
* 1 quart water
* 2 tablespoons prepared basil pesto
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1/4 cup white wine
* 3 cloves garlic
* 2 tablespoons olive oil
* 3 slices lemon
* 1 can chopped clams with juice
* 1 tablespoons toasted breadcrumbs