Linguine alle Cozze - Mussels Linguine

 You may cook this dish with just mussels or you may mix mussels with clams...
You may also remove all the mussels out of their shells or keep some mussels WITH the shells, the dish presentation will be much more dramatic!!! 
You may even avoid using the cherry tomatoes.... 
The result will still be very rewarding !!! 
 


INGREDIENTS:
Servings: 2

~700-800g mussels
160g linguine 
cherry tomatoes
2 garlic cloves
chilli 
parsley 
salt
EVO oil




1. Put pasta (linguine) into salted boiling water and cook them till almost ready: if the package instructions indicate 11 minutes of cooking, then cook for about 8 minutes and drain.

2. While the pasta is cooking, pour 2-3 tbs of EVO oil into a large pan and add garlic cloves cut into halves and some chilli.
3. Add washed and cleaned mussels to the pan, splash with some white wine and cover with a lid. Cook over high heat till the mussels are open.

Note: If you buy uncleaned mussels, you need to clean their shells from the seaweeds and tear the "beard" of the mussel away: hold the mussel firmly and tear he beard away with a sharp yank towards the hinge end.
Discard any mussel that is broken or opened.  
Cleaned mussels are to be cooked immediately.

   
4. When the mussels are open drain their water into a bowl and keep it.



5. Remove half of the mussels out of their shells and keep aside.

6. When the pasta is halfly ready drain it and keep some of it's water.
7. In the same pan you used to open the mussels, pour the mussels water back and add drained pasta, cook over medium heat for 2-3 minutes.

Note: If the sauce gets too dry, add some water from the pasta cooking.

8. Wash and cut cherry tomatoes into halves and add them to pasta.
Note: Don't cook cherry tomatoes too much as their skin will become harder and the pulp will secede from the skin and it's not nice....

9. Add the unshelled mussels to pasta and stir. 
10. At the end add the mussels with their shells to pasta to heat them up a bit. 
Serve with some finely chopped parsley and a glass of chilled white wine.... cheers!!!        

Buon Appetito!!!