Serves 4
Here's the deal - mussels may look like a bunch of work, but they're really not. This recipe is only about 15 minutes from start to finish. And once you get the hang of them, you'll make 'em again and again. Plus they look totally impressive when served.
Ingredients
- 3 pounds fresh mussels
- 6 pieces of bacon, diced
- 1/2 of one medium onion - diced
- 2 cloves, garlic
- 1/2 teaspoon, dried thyme
- 1 cup vermouth
- 1/4 cup fresh chopped parsley
- 1/4 cup butter
- fresh ground pepper
- Bread for serving, something delicious and crusty
Directions
- Make sure mussels are cleaned well - that means they've been scrubbed and don't have that little seaweed-like growth - it's called the beard. If they do, just give it a quick, hard little pull. All this handling will cause the mussels to close if they were open. If they don't close - don't use them. Have your fish guy make sure they are in good shape before he bags them.
- Cook bacon about 3 minutes, then add onion and continue to cook both until onion softened and bacon cooked just starting to get crispy then add garlic and cook another 2 minutes
- Add mussels, thyme, vermouth and turn heat to high
- Give the mussels a good stir with a large spoon to mix all together and cover pot
- Shake the pot occasionally to make sure the mussels cook evenly.
- In about 5 minutes, check to see if the mussels have opened. If they haven't, give them another couple of minutes, but that's it. If they haven't opened by now - it's too bad for them. Throw away the unopened ones.
- Take out the mussels, and cover with foil to keep warm.
- Add the butter and parsley to the liquid that remains - allow butter to melt
- Serve mussels in individual bowls with some of the liquid.
- Think I'll go make some right now!