Barilla and Mussels: Perfect for an Evening with Friends

Barilla and Mussels: Perfect for an Evening with Friends

A few friends planned a weekend of relaxation together.  Friday after work started with two of them going to the Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia together.  Dinner was to be a lengthy, relaxing affair with the whole gang, so we decided to start dinner with a large pot of mixed shellfish meuniere (see recipe at http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474976801749&nav=Namespace).  This time, though, we decided to make it with a combination of clams, shrimp and sea scallops).  The main dish was to be Mike's famous yogurt baked salmon.  (I will leave posting the recipe to him.)  Vegetables included baked kabocha squash with butter, roast fresh asparagus with extra virgin olive oil and white balsamic vinegar, stuffed mushrooms and a diced salad of cucumbers, assorted peppers, and avocado dressed with salt and lime juice.  We got a wonderfully crisp-crusted baguette from Metropolitan Bakery and a lovely Lancaster County, PA cave aged blue cheese from the Fair Food stall to enjoy on crackers with wine before settling in seriously on the first (shellfish) course.  

We were blessed with a treat.  Our favorite seafood vendor was so pleased with the size and variety of our order that she threw in a good-sized net bag of lovely mussels.  We added some to the meuniere mixture, but the real treat with them came on Saturday evening when some of us decided to dine more simply and spend the evening watching videos, including _Weeping Camel_ and _The Devil Wears Prada_.  What to do with all those mussels?  

Dinner turned out to be quite simple and wonderfully delicious thanks to some Barilla products in the cupboard.  

It is important to get all the sand out of the mussels before you cook them, or at least as much as you can.  We soaked the mussels in several changes of salt water with a bit of cornmeal sprinkled on for them to eat.  After the first half hour, there was enough sand in the bottom of the large mixing bowl used for soaking to repair the entire Jersey Shore after hurricanes!  (Okay, so I exaggerate a trifle.)  About three hours and six changes of water later, there was no sand left in the bowl.  Onward, then, to make pasta with mussels, a dish we thought up on the fly!  

Barilla and Mussels

(c) Dorine Houston 2008, all rights reserved  

Serves 4  

1 large bag (about 3 lbs./1400g) mussels, soaked to disgorge them of sand 

2 coffee mugs merlot or other dry red wine  (additional glasses to drink while cooking!)  

6 whole black peppercorns  

1/2 tsp./3ml dry thyme  

1 sprig fresh rosemary  

1 head fresh garlic, cloves separated, peeled and minced  

1/4 cup/60ml extra virgin olive oil  

1 jar (about a quart/litre) Barilla tomato and basil spaghetti sauce  

1 box (1 lb./450g) Barilla linguine  

Extra virgin olive oil 

Freshly grated locatelli cheese 

Bring the mugful of wine to a boil in a good-size pot along with peppercorns, thyme and rosemary and drop in soaked and drained mussels, a few at a time so as not to crowd them in the pot.  As soon as a mussel opens, remove it to a bowl with a slotted spoon.  When cool enough to handle, remove mussels from shells and place in another fresh bowl; discard shells.  When all the mussels are prepared, you may still find sand in the bottom of the cooking pot and in the wine in the bowl where they were cooled.  Strain wine through a coffee filter to remove the last of the sand.  

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to the boil and cook the pasta according to package directions.  

While the pasta is boiling, sauté the minced garlic in the olive oil.  Pour the tomato and basil sauce into a saucepan and whisk in the strained red wine.  Whisk in the oil and garlic mixture; heat well.  Stir in the mussels but do not cook them any more; they may become rubbery.  

Strain the pasta through a colander and toss immediately with EVOO and several soupspoons of freshly grated locatelli.  

Toss with the mussel and sauce mixture and place in a pasta bowl.  Top with additional grated locatelli and put more in a bowl to pass.  

Enjoy with a mixed green salad and a baguette.  For dessert, get some of that almost-as-good-as-sex pistachio fudge from the Pennsylvania General Store stall at the Reading Terminal and bliss out with some good videos.