Mussels in White Wine Sauce
These steamed mussels are cooked in a buttery white wine broth with shallots, garlic, and just a touch of tomato paste. Easy enough for a weeknight, but elegant enough to feel like a restaurant-quality seafood dinner at home.
Ingredients
For the Mussel Soak
- 450 g mussels
- 1500 g water
- 500 g ice
- 60 g salt
For the Broth
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 30 g shallot, finely chopped
- 30 g garlic, pressed or minced
- 1 pinch chili flake
- fresh cracked black pepper
- 15 g tomato paste
- 100 g dry white wine, sauvignon blanc or unoaked chardonnay
- 60 g cold butter, cut into pieces
- 10 g parsley, chopped
To Serve
- crusty baguette, crisped in the oven and sliced
Instructions
- Mix water, ice, and salt in a big bowl and stir until the salt dissolves. Then add mussels and soak for 30 minutes in the refrigerator.
- Scrub shells with a paper towel or a steel wool, then remove the beard by pinching it against the shell and pulling toward the hinge. Hold cleaned mussels in the fridge until you're ready to cook. Discard any dead mussels.
- Finely chop shallot and mince/press garlic through a garlic press. Heat a baguette or chunk of bread in a 375°F / 190°C oven for 8-10 minutes.
- In a saucier or dutch oven, combine oil and shallot. Sweat over medium heat, 5 minutes until softened and translucent. Once softened, add a pinch of chili flakes and a few cranks of black pepper and fry for 30 seconds.
- Add tomato paste to the pan and cook it for another 1-2 minutes, stirring so it darkens a shade and loses its raw edge.
- When tomato paste is beginning to stick to the bottom of the pot, add wine and bring it to a hard boil while scraping up any tomato from the bottom of the pot.
- Add cleaned mussels, bring liquid back to a boil, add tight lid, and steam for about 2½ minutes or until sheets have opened and mussel meat looks plump and cooked through.
- Drop heat to low, add cubed cold butter, add lid and swirl the pan to emulsify the butter for a minute or until the butter has melted.
- Add parsley, then taste broth and adjust salt if needed. Serve right away with the toasty crusty bread for soaking up the broth.
How do I know if a mussel's gone bad and needs to be tossed? If it's sitting open, give it a squeeze. If it doesn't close back up in a few seconds, it's likely dead. If the shell is cracked badly I'd also assume it's dead, so throw those away.
Cook time may vary by 30 seconds in either direction. Properly cooked mussels should look plump and will e sitting on one side of the shell. They're likely undercooked if still attached to both sides of the shell. If some mussels are still closed after 2½ minutes of cooking, shake the pan and continue cooking for antother 30 seconds. If any shells are still closed at this point, throw those mussels away.
Notes
If you'll be doubling or tripling this recipe, opt for a low, wide dutch oven like this one for your cooking vessel rather than a 3 qt saucier.
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