The Western Seaboard
I know a place up on the Mendocino coast where the rocks are covered with a thick carpet of interwoven mussel shells of the California Mussel variety. This particular area can only be accessed by kayak and remains virtually untouched.
Posted on August 11, 2019
Mussels from pristine waters are a precious food, they deserve to be prepared and served in an equally precious way.
It helps when your Italian friend comes to town to celebrate the mussel harvest and brings his pasta machine. But if you need to buy pasta then do yourself a favor and buy the best spaghetti, linguine or tagliatelle you can find, especially after making the effort of harvesting your mussels by kayak.
The dish will turn out better if you start drinking wine while making pasta. It's a lengthy process, you've got to keep the spirits up.
Ingredients
- 1 lb 2 oz/500 g mussels, cleaned
- 5 oz/150 g long pasta, such as spaghetti, linguine or tagliatelle
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 1/4 bouillon (stock) cube made up to scant 1/2 cup (3 1/2 fl oz/100 ml) broth (stock) with boiling water
- Large handful flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
Directions
- First, clean the mussels by scrubbing any dirt and barnacles from the shells, removing the strands of seaweed and throwing away any with broken shells.
- Cook the pasta in a large pan of boiling, salted water for 10 minutes, or according to the package directions, until al dente. Drain well.
- Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large pan with a tight-fitting lid. Add the onion, and cook over medium heat for 5 minutes, or until the onion is soft but not colored. Add the garlic and cook for another 1 minute. Increase the heat, tip in the mussels, and stir to coat in the onion and garlic. Pour in the broth (stock), cover with the lid, and cook for 5 minutes, shaking the pan from time to time until all the mussels are opened. Discard any mussels that remain closed.
- Add the pasta and parsley to the pan and toss through the mussels. Ladle the pasta and any juices into bowls and serve immediately.
From different attempts I've learned that medium-sized mussels are best. The very large ones have the texture of a tough steak while cleaning the very small ones can be a lot of trouble.