Mussels with Linguine

Hey all! There hasn't been a post in a couple days - Justin and I went out on a date night and we had lots of leftovers! It is always lovely being able to go out and have a nice relaxing dinner and reconnect. Sometimes life just gets so busy and things have been really crazy in our lives since we are preparing for our second move in two months! I thought I would share the photos with you for some inspiration :)

 This is Justin's humongous bacon burger! He is such a fan of a great burger :)

Prosciutto and pesto pizza with fresh mozzarella. This baby was cooked in a legit pizza oven and it was delicious :)






Now that you've whet your appetite, here is a how to in making this lovely dinner! There are a couple parts to the preparation but it is definitely worthwhile! There are four steps to making this meal:

• Boil linguine, or pasta of your choice. You will need one pot and a large bowl to set the pasta aside, if you are reusing the same pot (which I did).
• Clean and debeard the mussels. This will require two bowls to fit all of the mussels (all must fit in each bowl) and a dull pairing knife.
• Make the sauce in which you cook the mussels. Reuse the same pot from the pasta or use a new one.
• Filter the sauce using a coffee filter or mesh strainer with a liner, like a paper towel. Toss everything together and eat :)

So I'm going to try to make this as clear and concise as I can - but do comment with any questions you have!

Recipe

2-3 lbs mussels, cleaned

1 lb linguine fine

2-4 cups of white wine, depending on the amount of mussels

1 small or medium yellow onion, minced

1/2 cup parsley, chopped

1/2 cup purple basil, chopped

2-3 tablespoons of garlic (this amount can be less or more, depending on how strong of a garlic flavor you'd like - just remembering it is competing with other very strong flavors)

3 tablespoons of dairy-free butter

Salt and pepper to taste

1/2 cup parmesan cheese (optional)

1/2 lemon, juiced (optional)

Garnish: lemon, parmesan cheese, parsley, purple basil

Keeping Your Mussels Fresh

This might be the most important of all. I highly recommend purchasing your mussels the day that you cook them and purchase them from someone with a very reputable seafood department. It ensures freshness and the better the place of purchase, the more likely you will have to throw away less mussels. Some of it is unavoidable but proper care of mussels will ensure a greater amount are living. 

If the mussels are sold to you in a plastic bag, paper wrapping, or any method that doesn't have breathing holes in the wrapping, you need to transfer them once you get home. Put them in a bowl with saran wrap and poke holes in the top. Your mussels are living creatures so they need to be able to breathe. Once they are in the proper packaging, place them in the fridge until they are ready to use!

Pasta and First Step in Cleaning Mussels

For the pasta, I highly recommend the linguine or something similar. The linguine is perfect since it will have the more area for the sauce, while still being in "spaghetti" form. But just my opinion :)
When you set the water to boil for the pasta, also fill a large bowl with cold tap water and place the mussels in the water. You can also add cornmeal to the water, which will force the mussels to purge sand. I filter the sauce that the mussels cook in which removes this sand - so it is up to you which you would prefer. Leave the mussels on the counter in the cold water.
Boil the pasta, as according to the package. Once cooked to al dente or slightly before (according to preference), remove from heat and drain. Cool down by rinsing with cold water and set aside in a bowl. Make sure the pasta is cooled and well drained to prevent further cooking and so the pasta doesn't become one massive block.

Cleaning and Bearding Mussels

This step will also include the introduction to making the cooking sauce. Once you debeard the mussels, you need to be quick about cooking them. You also don't want your sauce sitting around reducing if the mussels are taking longer bearding than you thought. So to ensure none of that happens, take your pot (or a deep saucepan would work) and pour about two tablespoons of olive oil and heat over medium-high heat. Saute minced onion and garlic until onion is translucent. Pour in 3 cups of white wine and 1-1/2 cups of low sodium stock (I used chicken). Remove from heat until all mussels are bearded.

During the above steps, or after, you will start cleaning and bearding the mussels. There are three steps that you will need to take for each and every mussel, as following:

1. If the mussel shell has opened during its soak, gently force the shell closed and see if the shell has closed within a minute or two. Or you can gently tap (or flick) the shell of the mussel and see if it closes within a minute or two. If the mussel shell closes, than the mussel is still alive and perfectly safe to eat - otherwise trash the mussel! It is normal for at least a couple of mussels to be dead and have to be trashed. In my two pounds of mussels, I ended up trashing four mussels.
2. If the mussel feels grimy or has barnacles on the shell, take a bristled object (like a toothbrush or dish scrubbed) and gently scrub the shell under cold tap water.
3. If the mussel has a beard, as seen in the close up photo below, you will need to remove it. (Not all mussels have beards!) Take the beard between your thumb and a pairing knife. You will need to experiment a little bit to find the most comfortable position for you - I had the flat edge facing the mussels and the cutting edge towards my hand - make sure you don't cut your hand!! My knife is really, really blunt so it wasn't a problem for me. Anyways, you will need to pinch the beard between your thumb and knife and pull outwards. Sometimes the beard is very difficult to pull or the mussel will pull the beard inside the shell and if you had removed some but not all of the beard, you may end up with no way to remove the beard. This is totally fine - especially if its your first time!

Place the bearded mussels in a second, dry bowl. This bowl will hold all the bearded and cleaned mussels and from there, they will be cooked!

Justin is demonstrating the technique of bearding the mussels here. You can see the beard is a brownish filament protruding from the mussel shell. You want to grab however much of the beard as you can and pull it to firmly be held between your thumb and the knife.

Once the filament is firmly between your thumb and the knife, pull straight out and then yank to pull the beard out from the mussel. It may feel firmly rooted so you need to experiment with the best way to pull. It is also really nice to have a "hand off" person if your hands get tired - they can finish off the job!

Cooking Sauce

Your pot should already have sauteed onion and garlic, white wine, and chicken stock. Add parsley and salt and pepper. The pot should be off the heat. Now that your mussels are ready for cooking, bring your pot to a boil. Once boiling, add all the mussels. The mussels should take no longer than 8 minutes to cook, if they take any longer you need to discard them! The mussels will open when cooked, so go ahead and scoop out any shells that have opened and place in a bowl. The shell doesn't need to open wide or all the way, it just needs to open. The mussel itself will be a nice peach/pink color - as seen below. Once all the mussels are removed, let the sauce reduce to almost half (I also added lemon juice here). Then filter the sauce in a coffee filter or makeshift filter (mesh strainer and paper towel) and discard the paper towel and its fillings. 

This is a picture of a cooked mussel. It had a nice peach/pink color - kind of like a skin color. The picture's colors are a bit distorted from the light but you can see how it looks :) 

If you've never had a mussel before they do look pretty unappetizing but they are very delicious and soak up the flavor of whatever they are cooked in!

Now toss all your hard work together into one pot (except mussels) and heat. This would be the time to add herbs, spices, check seasonings, and any additions (I added spinach). Remove from heat and toss in mussels. Serve with a lemon wedge! Enjoy!

After Post Note: I did want to mention that in order to have edible leftovers you need to cook the pasta first. Heat for one minute (or to hot temperature) and then add mussels and cook for 20-30 seconds. You want the mussels to be warmed but not cooked again - this will lead to chewy, rubbery mussels. So enjoy your leftovers!!

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