Pasta with mussels in tomato sauce

• 10 minutes to prepare • 10 minutes to cook • Serves 4

 

When you can't go to the seaside, let the seaside come home 

This pasta with mussels in tomato sauce is one of these dishes that comes together pretty quickly but still achieves an impressive effect.
With only a handful of ingredients and less than an hour, you can really impress your loved ones for a busy weeknight dinner. Obviously, you can make it for guests or for a holiday, but my point here is that it’s easy and quick, but not short on flavor.

This sauce uses canned tomatoes: of course you can replace them with fresh cherry tomatoes, peeled. It achieves its fragrance from the shallot, garlic and white wine in which mussels are cooked with. And then the sauce incorporates the mussels and is finally tossed with a portion of incredible spaghetti pasta.

What more can you ask for? Maybe a glass of wine!

Here's what you will need for the 4-serving recipe:

400 g spaghetti pasta
1 can chopped tomatoes
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 shallot, chopped
½ cup dry white wine
500 g mussels, rinsed, scrubbed and beards removed
salt and pepper
EVO oil

1. Pulse tomatoes with juices in food processor just a few times to break down into a coarse purée; set aside. Bring large pot of water to boil for pasta
2. Meanwhile, in a pan with lid, combine crushed garlic clove and shallot with white wine. Bring to a boil and add mussels. Cover and cook, shaking pan from time to time, until mussels open up. Check mussels after 2 minutes; transfer open mussels to a bowl using tongs. Cover pan again, wait another minute, and repeat until all mussels have opened
3. Leave mussels to cool in bowl until easily removed from shells. Remove half from shells and leave other half intact. Transfer to a bowl and keep covered while you make tomato sauce
4. Place a strainer over another bowl, line with cheesecloth and strain the liquid in the pan into bowl. Reserve ½ cup
5. Heat olive oil over medium heat in pan and add one garlic clove garlic. Cook, stirring, just until fragrant, about 30 seconds to 1 minute. Add tomatoes, and sugar
6. Turn heat up to medium-high and cook, stirring often, 5 to 10 minutes, until tomatoes have cooked down slightly. Add ½ cup broth from mussels, stir together and bring to a simmer. Taste and add salt as needed (you may not need to add any). Tip all mussels, shelled and unshelled, into sauce, cover and turn heat to very low or remove from heat if not serving right away. Keep warm while you cook pasta
7. Warm a large bowl for the pasta. When water for pasta comes to a rolling boil, salt generously and add pasta. Cook al dente, following the directions on the package. Drain and toss in the warm bowl with tomato sauce, freshly ground pepper and mussels. Serve right away

In the following, Nutrition Facts of this dish are indicated. Data is provided per serving.