Clams with Pasta

Quahogs are abundant in the salt marshes of the Lowcountry. No clamming license is required for residents, and we are allowed ½ bushel per head of household for no more than two days each week of the nine-month season (September through May). Littlenecks, the smallest grade, are seldom seen locally; they are shipped up north, where they are better appreciated. We are left with the cherrystones, or mediums, and the big “chowders,” fit only for what their name implies.

I put the clams