Description
If you’re ready for French Bistro Night-in, this steamed mussels recipe will have you breaking out the tablecloth, candles, and white wine. And if you really wanna go all out, sop up all of the delicious white wine mussel sauce with French fries and you’ll have yourself a full-on Moules Frites!
Ingredients
Units
Scale
- 2 pounds mussels, debearded and scrubbed clean (1 kg)
- 4 ounces pork sausage (or ground pork seasoned w/salt and black pepper) (125g)
- 3 large button or cremini mushrooms (80g)
- 1 to 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (25-30g)
- 2 ounces dry white wine (50g)
- 2 garlic cloves, smashed
- 1 to 2 tablespoons unsalted butter (14-28g)
- 1 chili pepper, dried (or a pinch of red pepper flakes)
- 1 teaspoon parsley, finely chopped
- sea salt to taste
Instructions
- Clean the mussels. Discard any mussels that are cracked or open. With the remaining mussels remove the “beard” from each by tugging and sliding upwards. This should easily remove the beards. Place de-beared mussels in a bowl of water until all beards have been removed. If the mussels have been prewashed and debearded you may proceed with soaking them. However, if mussels have grit or mud on the shells, you’ll need to scrub each one clean with a heavy-duty scrubber.
- Soak the mussels. Add the debearded and cleaned mussels to a large bowl, sprinkle 1/4-1/2 cup of flour over the surface, add 1-2 tablespoons of sea salt, and cover with water. Stir everything around with your hand to incorporate the flour into the water. Set a timer for 1 hour. After the mussels have soaked, rinse each one under running water and place them in a clean bowl.
- Heat olive oil and smashed garlic in a sauté pan or dutch oven. Cook the garlic over medium heat until it’s lightly blistered and blonde but not browned.
- Cook the sausage and mushrooms. Add the pork and sauté until browned and cooked through. Add the mushrooms, and a pinch of salt, and cook for a few more minutes until golden brown.
- Cook the mussels. Turn the heat to high and add the mussels and white wine. Cover with a lid and shake the pan occasionally to move the mussels around. After about 2 minutes, check for any mussels that have steamed open and remove them to a separate bowl. Place the lid back on if needed and continue removing cooked mussels until all have been removed. Discard any mussels that don’t open.
- Add the remaining ingredients to the mussels sauce. Throw in the butter, chopped parsley, and diced tomatoes, and cook for a couple of minutes until the butter is melted and the sauce comes together. Add the mussels back to the pot, toss everything together, and serve with French Fries or a baguette of bread, Enjoy!
Notes
- Do not over-salt the dish before you add the mussels. Remember that mussels are typically naturally salty, so the juices they contain will add salt to your final sauce. I usually just add a little salt to the mushrooms when they’re cooking and allow the rest of the saltiness to come from the mussels.
- Substitute breakfast sausage or chorizo sausage for the Italian Salsciccia (ground pork, salt, and black pepper only)
- Don’t overcook the mussels. Remove any mussels as they open to a separate bowl with a pair of tongs so they don’t overcook. Place them back into the white wine and mussel sauce when ready to serve.
- What do I do with leftover tomato white wine sauce? Do not throw out any of the leftover sauce if you don’t eat it all. This stuff is like liquid gold. I use it to make mussel-flavored pasta when I don’t feel like really cooking, but want something fresh and tasty. Either refrigerate overnight and use it for lunch or dinner or store it in the freezer and defrost when you feel like having seafood without any of the work.
- Feel free to omit the butter if you’re cutting calories. It’ll still taste great.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Soak Time: 60 minutes
- Cook Time: 5 minutes
- Category: Fish + Seafood
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: French
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1/2
