My find of the day the other day was that the Kings near me sells a pound of mussels for three dollars. Naturally I had to make something fantastic with them.
The biggest challenge with mussels is that you need to clean them. If you don’t, you will get sand and barnacles and fish poop in your sauce. First you must sort them into living and dead. Any of them that are at all opened are dead and will begin to rot. You should throw them out. If any of them open in the cleaning, toss them too.
Place all of the remaining (live) mussels in a pot of cold water and grab a (disposable) toothbrush and scrub each of the mussels . I usually put them into a nearby bowl as I work. Throw out the water and repeat two more times. You probably won’t get much the third time but that’s how my Great-aunt Mildred always did it, so that’s how I do it too.
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| Not visible: the pile of sand at the bottom of that pot. |
Next (or while your boyfriend is cleaning the mussels), begin preparing an arrabiata sauce.
Combine in a pot one small can of tomato paste, two small cans of chunked tomatoes, one small (tomato paste sized) can of water, a small. diced onion, salt, pepper, garlic, red pepper and a couple splashes of tobasco sauce (I would have used sriracha, but I couldn’t find any at my supermarket), and bring it to a boil for twenty minutes, then lower it to a simmer.
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| Warning, this is spicy |
Once the sauce is simmering put on a pot of water to boil. When the water is boiling, put the mussels in the sauce and the spaghetti in the water. The mussels are done when they are all opened (if one refuses to open three minutes after his brothers, just toss him) and the pasta is done when it sticks to the ceiling. (Don’t test that last one.) Lay the mussels and sauce over the pasta
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| Savory and spicy |
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