Spaghetti with Clams and Braised Greens
To give spaghetti with fresh clam sauce more flavor, chef Ashley Christensen purees sweet roasted bell peppers into the spicy, briny broth. In 2018, Food & Wine named this recipe one of our 40 best: We didn't think spaghetti and clams could get better than the garlicky classic until chef Ashley Christensen of Poole’s Diner in Raleigh, North Carolina, created a version that forever changed the way we look at this dish. Her method is to steam the clams in wine, then puree the resulting broth with roasted red peppers, creating a briny, rich, deeply flavorful sauce that clings to the pasta—no leaving any delicious sauce behind in the bowl. Adding a hefty load of Swiss chard helps to amp up the flavor, creating a fabulously satisfying one-dish wonder.