My spaghetti with mussels
Presentation
These spaghetti with mussels are my favorite pasta dish. This is the way my mother makes them and, contrary to tradition in Italy, she also adds parmesan at the end and, with all due respect to tradition, for me they are the best! Try them and you'll let me know.
Ingredients:
- 500 grams of mussels
- 200 grams of spaghetti
- 1+1 cloves of garlic
- 1+1 small chillies
- 30 grams of parmesan
- olive oil to taste
- pepper to taste
- coarse salt to taste
Preparation:
1 Clean the shell from the algae, remove the side string from the mussels and throw them into a basin full of water. As soon as they are finished, drain them immediately and keep them aside. 2 Prepare a sauté with olive oil, 1 clove of garlic cut in half and a small chopped chilli pepper. Tilt the pan to let the oil flavor better. 3 When the garlic begins to brown, pour the mussels into the pan and put the lid on. When the mussels are all open, remove the lid and turn off the heat.
4 When the mussels have cooled, shell them, keeping 5 or 6 aside if you want for the garnish. At the end, keep the mussels immersed in their liquid previously passed through a strainer. 5 Boil the spaghetti in a pan with salted water. While the pasta is cooking, prepare a 6 sauté similar to the first and when it is ready, pour the mussels with their liquid into the pan.
When the spaghetti are half cooked 7 drain them in the pan with the mussels and complete the cooking 8 adding a little pasta cooking water if necessary. When the spaghetti is almost ready and there is still a little liquid on the bottom of the pan 9 add the parmesan and mix the spaghetti to cream them and create that cream that makes them exceptional. Serve them immediately and enjoy your meal!
Advise
- You can freeze them : if you have too many mussels you can always store them in the freezer cooked and immersed in their liquid in an airtight container for several weeks.
- Drain the freshly cleaned mussels immediately : this will prevent them from losing their water.
- Use all the cooking water from the mussels : it is the key to the success of the dish. Stirring the pasta in the water released while cooking the mussels is essential.
- Do not use mussels that have already been shelled : as stated in the previous point, if you do not have the water retained by the mussels available, I advise you against proceeding with this preparation. So use only fresh mussels.
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