Baked Clams Stuffed Oreganata

A clam lover’s dream, these Baked Clams Stuffed Oreganata are juicy, delicious tasting, and easy to prepare. Baked clams are a crowd-pleasing appetizer and a favorite for the holidays. These baked clams are easily stuffed with a flavorful breadcrumb mixture and baked in minutes before your guests arrive. Perfect!

Baked Clams Oreganata…

Baked clams oreganata can be made with either fresh clams or canned ones. For our recipe, these baked clams are stuffed with a very flavorful breadcrumb mixture made with plain breadcrumbs, grated cheese, oregano, parsley, fresh garlic, and extra virgin olive oil.

A simple recipe, yet – these baked clams always turn out delightfully tasty! (not fishing tasting either!)

And, they are worth making.

What kind of fresh clams are best to stuff?

Two kinds of clams are best for stuffing and baking, and these are:

• Cherry-Stone Clams: these clams are larger than the little neck clams. They have tender meats with a mildly sweet flavor and a briny accent.
• Little Neck Clams: are smaller in size, but most flavorful and are salty and slightly chewy.  

QUICK NOTE: Keep in mind, New Zealand Clams (which are very small in size) are too small to stuff and are better to cook with like our Little Neck Clams in Wine and Garlic Broth or our Mixed Seafood Stew, just to name a few.

How to open fresh clams?

There are two common ways you can open these clams for stuffing:

1. STEAM CLAMS TO OPEN: Rinse and steam them in a pot with about 2 inches of water, to open the clams.
2. TO SHUCK THEM: Ask the fishmonger at your local fish store to shuck the clams open for you. Then ask him to give you the shells too. You can keep the clams and their juice in a sealed container for up to 1 day, before preparing them.

How to stuff clams?

There are 2 ways to stuff clams, and they are:

• You can stuff each shell with Whole Clam: you can stuff each half shell with the whole clam. Keep in mind, that it will yield you only 6 clams per dozen.

• Or you can stuff the shells with Chopped Clams: you can easily chop, or mince the clams before stuffing. This will give you more shells to stuff, resulting in a greater number of baked clams for each serving as an appetizer.

Today, we bought fresh clams from our local seafood market, and had them shucked. Then, we took them home and started to work on them, chopping each clam into pieces. It took me about 15 minutes to chop them, but worth it.

The Best Part? It gave me more clams to stuff and bake, yielding about 40 clams to stuff, instead of getting only 18 half-shell clams from 3 dozen. Not bad, right? 😉

Next, how to prepare the shells before stuffing…

1. Keep in mind, that the “shells” of the clams will contain sand. So it’s best to rinse the shells in a bowl and under running water.

2. Then drain the “empty shells” in a colander. Rinse a few times, until you no longer see any visible sand. Drain again well.

3. Drizzle some olive oil on the bottom of your 9 x 13-inch pyrex baking dish. Then lay the “clean” empty clam shells on the bottom of the baking dish and in one single layer.

4. You can lay half of them, and then as you begin to fill each clam shell with pieces of chopped clams, you will yield more clams. Just keep adding them to the batch in the baking dish as you fill them.

Make the breadcrumb mixture, then stuff each shell: (*full recipe card below!)

1. In a mixing bowl, stir together bread crumbs, grated cheese, crushed garlic, oregano, parsley, salt, and crushed red pepper.

2. Pour in the olive oil and mix until well combined. The breadcrumb mixture will be very moist.

3. Then stuff each clamshell, one at a time.

Make Ahead…

Here is where you can prepare the stuffed clams, cover them with a lid or with foil wrap and refrigerate until you are ready to bake them. You can prepare them up to one day before, then bake them the following day.

Before these Stuffed Clams are Baked…

• First, use a teaspoon, and spoon a little melted butter over each stuffed clam. NOTE: you may drizzle extra virgin olive oil instead.
• Next, carefully and slowly pour some water (or chicken broth or white wine) on the bottom of the baking dish. This will keep the clams moist while baking. (Do not flood or drown them)

• Bake in a preheated oven at 375 degrees F (190C) for 10 to 15 minutes. Then change the oven to “broil” and broil the clams for 2 to 3 minutes to crisp and brown the tops. Do not over-broil, or they will turn out dry.

• Then transfer to a serving platter, and serve with some lemon wedges. Allow family and friends to squeeze fresh lemon juice over their stuffed clams.

… and ENJOY!!

Additional Seafood Recipes…

• Best Lobster Sauce
• Skillet Salmon with Chili Sauce
• Little Neck Clams in Wine and Garlic Broth
• Easy Baked Shrimp Scampi Dinner

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Happy Baking! 🙂

xo Anna and Liz