I need a good recipe for this. I found one using cooking wine, buttern sauteed mushrooms, flour, milk, and seafood…however it came out rather flavorless…just like…well…floury and milky. How can i make a better white sauce? Creamy yet complimentary to the seafood.
The stock you use to make the sauce is the main ingredient to flavour your spaghetti, with the white wine it makes a sauce to die for … of course seasoning and herbs are important too and don’t forget about the seafood.
Here is basically what I use for clams with spaghetti.
I usually just wing it on the quantities, I have no idea of the measurements.
garlic, finely chopped
1-2 small shallot, finely sliced
olive oil
dried chili flakes (optional)
white wine
butter
fresh parsley, coarsely chopped
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
Add garlic. shallots (chili flakes) and oil to a cool pan and slowly bring up to heat (This will help get the flavor throughout the oil)
Once the oil gets hot, but before the garlic starts to burn, add the wine and clams.
Cover the pan and let simmer until the clams open.
Add butter, black pepper and parsley and let simmer for 1 minute (until butter melts).
Stir to mix butter throughout and serve over spaghetti or linguine.
If you want a thicker sauce, instead of adding butter, you can add cream (or milk) and a little flour (or cornstarch). A little parmesan cheese could also be added. 
If you decide to add the flour, make sure that you dissolve it in some water before adding it to the pan. After you add it, you need to let everything get hot enough to start boiling and the flour will turn into a thick sauce.
Good luck
What belgian pie and JMcNeill said. Note neither of them included flour in their recipe. I personally wouldn’t ever add flour to a pasta sauce in order to get it to reduce. Either coordinate the liquid quantity or the cooking time to thicken the sauce.
Where did you get the recipe?
Here is a cream sauce recipe that I modified from egullet. It is very similar to JMcNeill’s recipe. The difference mainly being adding cream and mushrooms.
Cream Sauce
1 pt heavy cream
1/4 tsp seasoning
1/2 lb shiitake mushrooms
1/4 c diced shallots
1/4 c dry sherry or white wine
1/4 stick butter at room temperature
olive oil
Heat cream in saucepan until it is boiling vigorously. Reduce to 1/3 of its original volume and add seasoning.
In a sauté pan, sauté shallots and shiitakes in a little olive oil until tender. While over high heat, add the sherry/wine to the pan and flame off the alcohol. reduce until most of the liquid has evaporated. remove the mushrooms from the heat, combine with cream in the saucepan and simmer for a few minutes. Add butter and whisk until sauce thickens. Season with salt and pepper. Ladle sauce over the pasta and serve immediately.
Note: seasoning can be whatever you like, oregano, basil, or whatever. Use what you personally like and feel free to experiment.
What? There isn’t any seafood in the recipe. Right. For me, I like to sauté the seafood (depending on the type) separately in olive oil with a little fresh chili. If you don’t want the bother, add the seafood when it should be added. It is hard to say without knowing the type of seafood. Shrimp, clams, lobster, cod? My guess is that you are making a clam or squid linguini. If so, you should probably add them when you add the mushrooms.