Fill a large pasta pot halfway with salted, hot water and place it on the stove, covered, on high heat.
While the water is heating, make the clam sauce in a large skillet. Peel and chop the shallot. Heat the butter and olive oil in the skillet over medium-high heat. When melted, add the shallots, stirring a bit. Lower the heat to medium and let the shallots cook for three minutes.
While the shallots are cooking, peel and coarsely chop the garlic. After the shallots have cooked for three minutes, stir the garlic into the pan. Let it cook for a minute.
Add the wine, bay leaf, clam juice, ⅓ teaspoon of salt and ¼ teaspoon of red pepper flakes to the skillet. Stir to combine. Lower the heat a bit until the pan is simmering gently. Simmer for three or four minutes.
When the water is boiling in your large pot, add the pasta and stir it in until it's submerged. Leave the lid off and cook the pasta until it's al dente, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking. While the pasta is still cooking, use a ladle to scoop out about a cup of the pasta water to reserve in a separate bowl.
Drain and rinse the canned clams and add them to the sauce. Continue cooking the sauce for another three or four minutes, just until the clams are heated through. Turn off the heat and stir in the lemon juice and parsley, if using.
When the pasta is done, drain it in a colander in the sink. Then add the pasta to the pan of clam sauce and toss to combine. Stir in ¼ cup of the reserved pasta water, (or a little more, especially if you skipped the wine).
Serve in bowls with extra olive oil drizzled on top, if desired. Store leftover pasta with sauce in the refrigerator for 3-4 days. To reheat, drizzle on more olive oil first. (See notes.)
Notes
Clam juice: Since the juice in canned clams contains lots of sodium and preservatives, we're draining and rinsing the clams and using bottled clam juice instead. Look for it near the canned clams at the grocery store or buy it online.Can you use fresh clams?I haven't tried it, but if you want to use fresh clams here, you can use two pounds of littlenecks. You'll need to clean them following the method described in my post on Beer-Steamed Littleneck Clams.Then you'd add the raw clams to the sauce right after adding the wine and clam juice. The sauce would have to cook until the clam shells open. Discard any clams that don't open.White wine: Use a wine you would drink and that's not too sweet. I prefer Sauvignon Blanc here, but you could use Pinot Grigio or sherry.Cooking wine is very salty, so I don't recommend using it here.If you need to omit the alcohol, you can stir some extra reserved pasta water into the linguine after it's cooked and drained.If cooking less than a pound of pasta:This clam sauce recipe makes enough for one pound of pasta. If making less pasta, just add as much sauce as you need to your drained pasta. Then you can cook more pasta the next day to use up the rest of the sauce.