Spaghetti with mussels and tomato sauce alla Tarantina.
This traditional pasta with mussels alla Tarantina from Puglia in Southern Italy is unbelievably tasty, easy to prepare and needs only a few ingredients. A beautiful special seafood pasta that will definitely impress your guests!
Servings: 4
Calories: 624kcal
Equipment
- 1 large skillet you can wash and use it again after cooking the mussels alone.
- 1 large bowl
- 1 small bowl for the shelled mussels
- 1 sharp knife
- 1 chopping board
- 1 cheese cloth or fine tea towel
Ingredients
- 2.2 pounds fresh mussels
- 14 ounce spaghetti or linguine
- 12.5 ounces tomato passata or canned peeled tomatoes
- 1.5 teaspoon peperoncino flakes (red chilli pepper) or chopped fresh peperoncino
- 3 garlic cloves peeled and chopped
- 3 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1 handful fresh parsley chopped
- 2.5 floz white wine optional
- salt for pasta and to taste
- ground black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Wash the mussels well. remove all the debris on the shells with a wire brush and remove the beards. Peel and chop the garlic. Wash and chop the parsley.
- Place the cleaned mussels in a deep pan and cook alone on a medium heat until they open. Transfer the mussels to a large bowl to cool. Filter the mussel cooking liquid through a cheese cloth or fine tea towel into a bowl and set aside.
- Once the mussels have cooled down a little, I discard all the mussels that didn't open (see recipe notes). Keep some mussels in their shells and remove the other mussels from their shells.
- Put a pot of water on to boil for the pasta. When it starts to boil add salt.
- In a large skillet, sauté the chopped garlic, peperoncino flakes and the shelled mussels in 3 tablespoon of olive oil for a minute or two. Then add the rest of the mussels and the white wine if using. Cook for another minute or two mixing everything together.
- Next, add the tomato passata, the mussel cooking water and a pinch of salt and a little pepper. Mix everything together again and simmer over a low to medium heat for 5-10 minutes until the liquid has reduced to a good consistency. Add some of the chopped parsley.
- Cook the pasta al dente according to the instructions on the packet.
- When the pasta is cooked, drain it and add it to the pan with the mussels and tomato sauce. Mix everything together well. Plate the pasta and mussels and serve sprinkled with some more chopped parsley.
Notes
This dish can also be eaten with bread instead of pasta. However, in that case, it's better to leave most the mussels in their shells.
You can make this dish spicier by adding more peperoncino, depending on how spicy you like it!
If you have leftovers, keep them sealed in the fridge for just a day and reheat on the stove top over a low heat.
This recipe is definitely better made with fresh mussels although some people may use frozen ones. However, frozen mussels don't have the same texture or taste as fresh. So the outcome would probably have less flavor.
About eating unopened mussels.
The advice in the past has always been to throw away any mussels that haven’t opened after cooking because they are bad. Nowadays, some say this isn’t true and any mussel that can be easily opened is fine to eat. If the mussel is very tightly closed then it will probably still be a little raw and unpleasant to eat or even dead! I prefer not to risk it.
Nutrition
Calories: 624kcal | Carbohydrates: 88g | Protein: 30g | Fat: 15g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 3g | Monounsaturated Fat: 9g | Cholesterol: 36mg | Sodium: 397mg | Potassium: 1051mg | Fiber: 5g | Sugar: 7g | Vitamin A: 758IU | Vitamin C: 24mg | Calcium: 77mg | Iron: 8mg