‘The Pioneer Woman’ Star Ree Drummond’s One-Pot Clam Spaghetti: ‘Just Look at How Amazing That Is’

Food Network personality Ree Drummond’s clam spaghetti gets a deliciously simple dinner on the table, all in one pot. It cuts down on dishes and, most importantly, satisfies even the pickiest of eaters. Here’s how The Pioneer Woman star gets it done.

Clams and pasta was the first meal Ree made her future husband Ladd

In her memoir The Pioneer Woman: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels – A Love Story, Drummond revealed that it was early in her relationship with her then-boyfriend-now-husband, Ladd, that she proudly served him a meal of clams and pasta. She discovered then that, while Ladd didn’t love seafood, he did love her.

“We were clearly on some kind of a roll, and now he wanted me to see where he lived,” she wrote. “I was in no position to say no.”

The future Food Network star brought all the fixings for a pasta meal.

“I agonized for hours over what I could possibly cook for this strapping new man in my life; clearly, no mediocre cuisine would do,” she wrote.

Since her family loved linguine with clam sauce, she decided to make it for Ladd, hoping he’d love it as well.

“I had no idea who I was dealing with,” she admitted. “I had no idea that this fourth-generation cattle rancher doesn’t eat minced-up little clams, let alone minced-up little clams bathed in wine and cream and tossed with long, unwieldy noodles that are difficult to negotiate.”

Ladd politely ate the meal, which made Ree love him all the more, realizing “just how romantic a gesture that had been.”

Drummond’s One-Pot Clam Spaghetti cuts down on dishes

The Pioneer Woman star’s one-pot wonder comes together with whole-wheat spaghetti, chopped clams with juice, olive oil, fresh oregano leaves, crushed red pepper flakes, sliced garlic, sliced yellow onion, baby spinach, grated Parmesan cheese, salted butter, and black pepper.

“The beauty of these one-pot pastas is that you don’t have to sautee onion and garlic, sautee the vegetables, make the sauce,” Drummond said in the Food Network video, link below, for this recipe. “It all gets made in the pot at the same time.”

You can find the full recipe, video, and reviews on Food Network’s site.

Ree Drummond’s practically instant version of pasta with clam sauce

Drummond begins her dish by placing the uncooked whole wheat spaghetti in a large pot, topped with the raw sliced onion and chopped garlic.

She adds a can of chopped clams “with the juice because the juice is where a lot of that delicious clam flavor comes from.” Sprinkle on crushed red pepper flakes for a little spice and heat, as well as oregano leaves. It’s all covered with water, which allows the magic of cooking the pasta and veggies to take place. Salt and pepper as you go along, adding as well some olive oil.

At this point, “turn up the heat and bring it to boil. I’m not even going to stir it, because that would be way too much work,” Drummond joked.

Ten minutes later, the pasta has softened, absorbing the water and clam juice, and it’s starting to look plate-ready.

Drummond adds butter to the pot, along with baby spinach (“You obviously want to add the spinach at the end because if I added it at the beginning, it would just completely fall apart”).

Parmesan cheese is sprinkled on, as well as black pepper.

“How easy was that? Just look at how amazing that is,” Drummond says of the final product.