Mediterranean-Inspired Mussels

Ann and I bought a couple pounds of delicious Washington State wild-caught mussels on a recent trip to the seafood market.

Mediterranean-Inspired Mussels

I had in mind to reprise a version of mussels that we did sporadically at the restaurant. We had mussels on the menu every day, but the preparation would change every other day or so, including new preparations and old stand-bys such as this one. Annie, I'm sorry that we're not eating bread now with which to sop up the juices.

Mediterranean-Inspired Mussels

At the restaurant, this dish would have also contained little bits of hard Spanish chorizo, but we're not eating that much meat at home, otherwise, this dish is almost identical. It depends on the spicy Calabrian chile, which has a salty and smoky flavor that other chiles cannot match.

The following quantities are sufficient for two pounds of mussels, which makes two hearty bowls or up to six appetizer portions.

1 tablespoon olive oil
4 cloves garlic, slivered
1 teaspoon Calabrian chile paste
4 piquillo peppers, sliced
zest of one orange, in long strips
1 pinch saffron
1/4 cup dry white wine

Warm the olive oil over high flame in a pan large enough to steam the mussels and add the garlic slivers. Cook until they start smelling good.

Add the chile paste, piquillos, orange zest, and saffron. Stir for a few seconds.

Add the white wine and then the mussels.

Cover and steam the mussels until they open, 90 seconds for this size, up to four minutes for the really large blues we used to get at the restaurant from Cape Cod.