Kitchen appliances and utensils: pan, thick-bottomed frying pan, grater, cutting board, knife, tongs, teaspoon, spatula, deep plate, stove.
Ingredients
Spaghetti (pasta) | 200 g |
Mussels (frozen or fresh) | 200 g |
Dry white wine | 100 ml |
Capers | 4 tsp (no slide) |
Garlic | 1 clove |
Fresh tomatoes or in own juice | 400 g |
Parmesan | 30 g |
Greenery | 1/4 beam |
Italian herbs | taste |
Olive oil | 5 tbsp. l |
Sea salt | taste |
Black pepper | taste |
Water | 1,5-2 l |
Step cooking
- Boil the pasta first. To do this, boil 1.5-2 liters of water and add salt at the rate of 1 tsp. salt per 1 liter of water. Put the spaghetti (or any other pasta) in boiling water. You do not need to break them. We wait a few seconds until the spaghetti begins to soften, and slowly lower them down. After boiling, mix a little and leave to cook as much as is written on the package.
- Next, go to the mussels. If your mussels were frozen, they need to be thawed in advance (approximately 3 hours) at room temperature. After that, thoroughly rinse the mussels and remove the byssus. Byssuses are the protein strands of mollusks through which they are attached to the surface. Usually algae, sand and any debris, which then crunches on the teeth, stick to the bysses. Therefore, they must be removed necessarily. Thoroughly clean each mussel and proceed to further cooking.
- When the pasta is boiled, drain the water from it, but not all. You need to leave about 50-100 ml. Then pour a small amount of olive oil and set aside.
- Set the pan to medium / high heat. Pour olive oil into it. Then peel the garlic. You can simply crush it with the blade of a wide knife, and the husk is very easily removed. Put the clove of garlic in the heated oil and fry for about 25 seconds until it is browned. After that, we throw it away, since garlic has already given its flavor to the oil, and we do not need the rest. Garlic burns very quickly and significantly spoils both the aroma and taste of the finished dish.
- Put the mussels in the garlic oil and simmer them. If it is thawed mussels, then they can be fried literally one minute, since they are already cooked in advance, and then frozen. If you have fresh mussels, they need to be fried for 3-5 minutes until they turn yellow.
- Then add dry white wine and send to stew on medium / high heat until all the wine has evaporated.
- At this time, chop the greens very finely. Parsley or any other herbs, such as basil, will do.
- After the wine has evaporated, put the tomatoes in their own juice. If they are whole or halves, they must first be cut into small pieces. You can also use fresh peeled tomatoes.
- Stew on medium / high heat for 3-5 minutes, then add capers, salt, pepper. You can add a mixture of Italian herbs. Stir and simmer another 1 minute.
- After this, we transfer the prepared pasta to the prepared mussel sauce directly in the pan along with the remaining water in which the pasta was cooked. We add water a little bit so as not to overdo it. The consistency should be a little liquid, completely enveloping the whole paste. Mix everything thoroughly for 30 seconds on fire.
- We shift the paste into a deep plate.First we wind the pasta on the tweezers, and then add the mussels with tomatoes on top, if there were not enough mussels inside the pasta. On top of the paste, grate the parmesan and sprinkle everything with herbs. Then sprinkle with olive oil, sprinkle with freshly ground pepper and serve. Enjoy your meal
Video recipe
In this video you will find detailed instructions for making pasta with mussels in tomato sauce. The author tells in detail in what order you need to cook all the ingredients, and also clearly demonstrates how to clean the mussels.