We’re 100-Percent Positive You Can Master This Perfect Clam Pasta Dish

There’s a common misconception that cooking is, and has to be, hard. That if you don’t have samurai-level knife skills and half the kitchen gadgets in the Argos catalogue, you’re doomed to culinary failure. That if a meal is amazing, it must take half your day to double-boil and strain and emulsify and tweezer-garnish into an exact replica of something you saw in a £30 cookbook.

Wrong. So wrong. Didn’t your grandma teach you anything? Cooking requires care, but not frills.

That’s what makes the food at New York’s Lilia so well-loved by both critics and locals; it’s elegant, it’s understated, but it’s also pretty damn accessible. (Once you can score a reservation or a highly coveted seat at the bar, that is.) Chef Missy Robbins’s Italian fare tastes like a million bucks, but is created with a focus on ingredients being perfectly cooked, thoughtfully combined, and super fresh.

If you can make a box of macaroni and cheese, you can make this garlicky seafood pasta dish. Garlic, fresh herbs, clams, and a sprinkle of salt and chili flakes is all it takes to make fresh spaghetti into a mouthful of wonder. Finish it with a generous squeeze of lemon.

RECIPE: Spaghetti with Clams & Summer Herbs

And don’t worry—we won’t tell your dinner guests that this plate of fancy stuff was made in 15 minutes.