Blue Pacific Mussels with White Wine
This dish is best served with a green salad dressed with oil and Balsamic vinegar.
White Wine: Dry if possible. Chateau Screw Top is O.K. to mix with the nectar
Pasta; fresh if you’ve got it, dry if you haven’t. Linguini is traditional, but any pasta will do.
Butter if desired
Olive oil, cold pressed extra virgin if possible. Your local food coop or natural food store may have it in bulk for less than the big chain gets for lower quality oil. Extra virgin olive oil has more flavour.
Garlic: a whole bulb (or two teaspoons of dried minced garlic if you don’t have fresh)
2 lbs. of Blue Mussels (serves two amply. Fresh clams are OK, but not as sweet as mussels)
Bread for garlic bread. Sourdough is nice. Try 100% whole wheat sourdough if you can find it.
Black pepper to taste
Peel garlic and chop coarse
Melt 1 Tbs. butter in a saucepan. Add 1 Tbs. olive oil or to taste. For low cholesterol I use all olive oil, no butter. If you don’t use butter, add salt to taste to make up for the salt in the butter Add chopped garlic and simmer until the garlic is soft. (5-10 min.) Remove from heat. Add more butter/oil until you have about a half cup
Slice bread. Dip each slice in garlic butter/oil. Rearrange as loaf. Wrap in foil. Bake at 300 deg. or place in covered pan on medium heat until pasta and mussels are ready. Check occasionally to be sure the bread doesn’t burn.
Boil the pasta in plenty of salted water. 1/2 cup seawater to 3 cups fresh is good. Rinse, but not enough to cool. Add 3 tbsp. garlic butter/oil. Stir to coat. Time pasta to be ready with mussels.
Bring the mussels to a boil in 2 cups of fresh water with 2 tbsp. garlic butter/oil. Simmer until Mussels open. Do not overcook. Add 2 more tbsp of the garlic butter. SAVE THE LIQUID.
Put pasta on the plate first, grate parmesan cheese on the pasta if desired, put mussels in shell on top: Garlic bread on the side. Top with grated Parmesan cheese to taste.
Pour glass or mug 1/2 full of hot Mussel cooking liquid (nectar). Fill with white wine. Drink hot. Eat soon.
