Mussels Pesto – Massachusetts
Cathy: Back in the late 80’s Ted and I lived in Boston in the Back Bay. It was early in our relationship and we had lots of “date nights”. One of our favorite places to go was the North End. Hanover Street was (still is) full of italian restaurants, famous for their fresh seafood and pasta dishes.
Our go-to place was Giacomo’s Restaurant, for Mussels Pesto and a glass or two of a nice italian white wine, like Pinot Grigio. And as was tradition in this historic neighborhood, they didn’t serve coffee and dessert at the main restaurants, most likely to get you in and out the door to keep the long waiting lines moving. Caffe Vittoria was for dessert and coffee, if you wanted to linger, or Mikes Pastry, if you were ok with a go to cannoli.
Where Pleasanton (30 years later) isn’t the North End, it became our favorite restaurant last night in the making of our favorite dish, Mussels Pesto.
Mussels are actually very easy to work with and not that expensive – a 2 lb bag was only $10 (at Whole Foods even!) and that’s enough for 4 people served with pasta. Just soak the live mussels in a bowl of floury water for 30 minutes to 1 hour before you cook them so they spit out the grit.
Makes enough for 4 people Takes about 1 – 1/2 hours (includes soaking time for mussels)
- Dried pasta (1 lb box) – I used about 3/4 of a box of thin spaghetti
- Live mussels – I used 2 lbs
- Shallots (1-2) diced finely
- Olive oil
- 1/2 cup light white wine
- Pesto sauce (use your favorite recipe or a small/medium jar of premade)
- Salt, pepper and italian herbs, fresh basil if you have it
- Parmesean cheese
- Soak the cleaned and rinsed mussels in flour (1/3 cup) and water (2 quarts). Whisk the flour into the water and add the mussels. Let them sit in a bowl for 30 to 60 minutes. Drain and rinse off.
- Meanwhile, sweat finely chopped shallots in olive oil in a medium large saucepan until softened & translucent.
- Add the wine to the saucepan to deglaze. Bring to a boil.
- Add the mussels, cover the pot, and let them steam until they open – about 5-8 minutes.
- Cook your pasta according to the directions. Save a little of the pasta water to mix with the pasta, if you want to loosen it up.
- In a separate pan, toss the freshly cooked and drained pasta with some of the broth from the mussel pot (I added almost all of it, but add it little by little until it’s the consistency you like). Add the pesto and toss to combine, then add the mussels, either tossed with the pasta or on top.
- Serve with Parmesan cheese on top and a glass of pinot grigio.
Variation: you can substitute marinara sauce for the pesto.
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