Podcast Queen Alex Cooper Has a Go-To Dinner You Can Recreate With 3 Ingredients

We’re big fans of turning unexpected ingredients and options into dinner. Queso can absolutely be dinner if you have enough things for dunking into it, and just because a meal consists of two or three seemingly random ingredients doesn’t mean it won’t bring you joy.  As social media has highlighted, dinner can be buttered noodles with parmesan or a spread of all your snacks and whatever’s in the fridge, even if that’s a mix of pickles, chicken tenders, hot cheetos, leftover lasagna, and berries — the sky’s the limit. 

For one of my new, nearly instant dinners, I have a surprising source to thank: podcaster and entrepreneur Alex Cooper.

The Call Her Daddy podcast host caught viewers’ attention on TikTok with her staple quick dinner using an unexpected canned pantry item: the Progresso White Clam Sauce (with Garlic and Herbs). Cooper initially showed her audience how to make the dish in 2023, but in a recent post this year, she demonstrated that she’s still enjoying it today. 

In her wonderfully chaotic cooking video, Cooper demonstrates how to use a can of this creamy sauce to make clam pasta, her favorite childhood dinner.

“This is one of my girl dinners, but I just know people are going to be like ‘That’s disgusting’,” Cooper says in the video. While some individuals may react this way, the popular podcaster has also inspired many others to try her easy canned clam spaghetti. 

To determine if her go-to meal was worth the hype, I decided to trust Cooper and follow along for the ride, making a swift run to the grocery store to buy a can of the required sauce.

This dinner is a convenient three-ingredient recipe that relies on two non-perishable pantry staples and one ingredient you probably already have on hand. To make it, you’ll need Progresso white clam sauce, spaghetti or linguine, and parmesan cheese.

In the video, Cooper explains that her mom raised her on this exact canned clam sauce. “This clam sauce is not to be disrespected,” she jokingly tells her followers. “This is my childhood. This is my stomach. Ninety percent of my stomach is rotting with Progresso clam sauce.” Although this might not sound appealing, after testing the recipe, I can confirm that it’s actually delicious.

How do you make Alex Cooper’s clam pasta? 

Once you’ve assembled your ingredients — the canned clam sauce, spaghetti or linguine, and parmesan — begin by boiling water for the pasta. While waiting for the water to boil, Cooper simultaneously pours her clam sauce from the can into a separate, smaller pot to heat it up. 

It’s important to note that you should specifically use Progresso’s clam sauce, as many TikTok users say the brand makes a difference when it comes to the recipe. (One creator tried making the dish with the Cento clam sauce instead and didn’t enjoy it as much as other creators who used Progresso.) 

Next, Cooper heads to the fridge for the third and final ingredient: Kraft parmesan. This is “obviously not real parmesan cheese,” Cooper clarifies for her followers. She explains that she always used Kraft parmesan for this meal growing up and remains loyal to this step as an adult.

While the clam sauce heats on the stove, she transfers the spaghetti to the boiling water. Next, she adds grated parmesan to the heated clam sauce. If you want to follow the exact recipe, you could use Kraft parmesan, but this was the only step of the recipe I modified slightly when I tried it myself. I couldn’t ignore the fresh chunk of pecorino staring at me from my fridge, and this meal is really about using what’s on hand. If you have real Parmigiano Reggiano, that would undoubtedly elevate the dish as well.

Once the pasta is cooked and the sauce is heated through with the parmesan thoroughly mixed in, Cooper drains the noodles — using a fuzzy sock to hold the hot rim of the pot, which we don’t recommend trying at home — then puts the spaghetti in her serving bowl and pours the desired amount of clam sauce on top before mixing it all together. For the final step, she naturally tops it with even more parmesan.

When I finally tasted a bite of Alex Cooper’s clam pasta, I understood her love for the dish. I still appreciated her candid admission that, “I’m not going to lie, it doesn’t look amazing, but the taste of this, guys, you don’t even understand.”

In another TikTok video, Cooper had one of her podcast guests, content creator Trisha Paytas, try the now-internet-famous canned clam spaghetti. Paytas, who considers herself a picky eater, was initially concerned by the meal’s appearance. However, after giving it a try, she was pleasantly surprised and rated the recipe an eight out of ten.

Not only is this dish easy to make, but I can confirm it has a deeply savory and delicious flavor profile, thanks to the generously seasoned, garlicky, and herby white clam sauce. It tends to be on the saltier side, and if you find that the dish is too salty for you, I recommend adding the juice of half a lemon to balance out the flavors and introduce a bit more brightness.

I can’t wait to see what other quick canned meals Alex Cooper has in store, and in the meantime, I may start stocking cans of clam sauce and boxes of spaghetti in my pantry.