Red Clam Sauce Recipe for Pasta

I'm a big fan of clam sauces, both red and white.  If you're not familiar with clam sauce, it's a sauce that's either butter/cream based or tomato based with clams and is served over pasta.  It's a pretty common item in the Northeast and almost any Italian restaurant serves their version of it.  Like a lot of sauces, everyone makes a variation to suit themselves or their customers.  I've had great clam sauce and I've had very mediocre clam sauce in restaurants that otherwise have good food.  I've made several variations of it over the years and I think I've honed my recipe down to an acceptable product that I served for dinner tonight with fettuccine. 

Ingredients:

3 ea. Cape May Chopped Clams, 6.5 oz. can, drained but reserve liquid (from Dollar Tree!)
1 ea. Hunt's Diced Tomatoes, 14.5 oz. can, drained
1 stick Butter, salted or margarine
1 tsp. olive oil
3-4 ea. garlic cloves, chopped
1/4 cup dry Sherry or Chinese rice Wine
1 tsp. sweet basil, dried
1/4 tsp. oregano, dried
1/2 tsp. Tony Chachere's Original Creole Seasoning
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper, fresh ground if possible

Method:

In a sauce pan or non-stick skillet, gently melt butter or margarine and then add the garlic. Simmer for about five minutes or so until the garlic starts to get clear. Then add the diced tomatoes, sweet basil, oregano, Tony Chachere's, salt, black pepper and all of the reserved clam juice you saved from when you drained the clams.  Simmer for about fifteen minutes, stirring often.  Then add the rice wine and the olive oil and simmer an additional two to three minutes. Next add all of the clams to the sauce, stirring in well.  Let simmer for about five minutes as you're only heating the already cooked clams and then serve over freshly prepared pasta. Enjoy!

Notes: I decided to try the Cape May clams this time after noticing they were made in the USA.  I'm afraid to use most canned clams as they are almost always from Southeast Asia and who knows what kind of water conditions they were harvested from.  Cape May's are also cheaper than many of the canned clams you'll find in the grocery.  I'm sure if you live in an area where live, fresh clams are available, they would be very superior to the canned varieties.  I also always use Hunt's Diced Tomatoes as they are about the best you can buy and were the favorite among several major brands recently tested by a well-respected food testing institute.