Mussels à la Marseillaise
Serves: 4 (as main dish), 8 (as appetizer)
Preparation time: 30 min. (plus 1 hour for purging if you use fresh mussels)
Moules à la Marseillaise, a traditional Provençal recipe from the port city of Marseille. You can serve it as an appetizer or as a main dish. As appetizer I would plan for 4 - 6 half shells per person, depending on the shell's size. If you can't get fresh ones, use frozen mussels. The dish even works well with New Zealand green-lipped mussels.
Ingredients:
- 1 kg (2 lbs) fresh mussels, cleaned and purged
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 1 small onion
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 thyme springs
- 2 parsley springs
- 1 cup of dry white wine
- 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 medium onion, finely chopped
- 2 large tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped
- 1 cup Persillade (parsley, garlic, salt and pepper)
- salt and pepper
- diced bread crumbs
Preparation:
If you use fresh mussels you need to clean and purge the mussels first.
Put the mussels in a pot with a tight lid. Add 3 cloves of garlic, 1 small onion, 1 bay leaf, 2 thyme springs, 2 parsley springs and 1 cup of dry white wine. Cover and bring to a boil over high heat. When the liquid starts to boil, shake the pot every minute or so, holding the lid tight. This should distribute the liquid evenly amongst the mussels. After about 5 minutes mussel shells should be open. If not enough have opened cook them a little bit more. Discard the unopened ones. Pour mussels into a colander and save the liquid. Filter the liquid through a cheese cloth and set aside. Let the mussels cool down a bit. Discard one half of the shell and keep the mussel meat nestled in the remaining half. Set aside.
Warm 3 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil in a pan over low heat. Add onions and sauté for about 10 minutes. Raise heat and add tomatoes and persillade. Sauté for another 10 minutes until tomatoes begin to fall apart. Add the saved mussel liquid and continue cooking for another 10 minutes or until sauce has thickened. Taste for salt and pepper.
Preheat oven to 230°C (450°F). Arrange mussels on a baking sheet and spoon the tomato sauce over each shell so that it covers the mussel meat. Sprinkle with bread crumbs and dribble some olive oil over it. Place in oven and bake until sauce begins to bubble. Serve right away.