Manhattan Clam Chowder uses a tomato base, while its more common New England Cousin uses cream.
Ingredients:
- 2 or 3 6.5 oz cans of clams, with juice
- 4 or 5 bacon slices, diced
- 1 onion, diced
- 1.5 potatoes, diced
- 2 tomatoes, cubed
- 1 bunch spinach, cut.
- 1 28oz can of peeled tomatoes, cubed, with juice
- 1 cup celery
- 1 cup carrots (i don’t like it, you might)
- 5-6 cups water
- basil (less),
- parseley (2T),
- thyme (more),
- bay (2 leaves),
- pepper, salt (to taste)
In a big pot:
- saute bacon until crisp, remove from their fat and set aside.
- add onion and potatoes to bacon fat (if you want to be more health-conscious at the expense of taste, you can discard the bacon grease and use olive oil).
- saute onion and potatoes for 7 minutes.
- Add celery, carrots, and half the thyme to the onion and potato.
- Saute for 5 minutes more.
- Add in water, tomatoes, tomato juices, and clam juices.
- Bring to a boil.
- Add the bay, basil, pepper, salt, rest of the thyme, and most of the parseley
- Cover and simmer for 20-25 minutes (or however long it takes to tenderize vegetables), stirring as you will.
- Add spinach and clams, and simmer uncovered for 5 minutes more.
Upon serving:
- sprinkle with the bacon and the leftover parseley (don’t cook the chowder with the bacon inside, or the bacony flavor goodness will disappear).
Serves 5-6.