You can prepare this dish in different ways, with or without tomatoes, for example. Here we explain the golden rules that you should follow in every variation to cook the perfect pasta with mussels. You can find a recipe for spaghetti alle vongole here.
Preparing the mussels
The first step is to prepare the mussels. Wash the shells thoroughly and remove any byssus threads, the “beard” of the mussels. You can simply tear them off.
The shells must be closed, but a slight opening is normal. If they are more open, tap them once on the work surface. If they then close, they are alive. If they do not, if they are wide open or even broken, throw them away.
Cooking the mussels
The dish should taste as authentic as possible of the mussels, which is why only a few aromatics are used. Place a large, high pan over a medium-high heat and add a little olive oil, peeled and crushed garlic cloves and parsley stalks.
As soon as the oil is hot, add all the mussels with a little white wine. Then immediately put a lid on and shake the pan vigorously to distribute everything. Leave the mussels to cook with the lid on for about 3 minutes until they have opened. Then remove the pan from the heat immediately so that the mussel flesh remains tender. Any mussels that are still closed are also thrown away.
A delicious mussel broth has now developed from these few ingredients and the mussel flesh has been cooked in the steam.
Take the shells out of the pan one by one and carefully remove the mussels. You can also serve some mussels in their shells later, but we find this rather impractical and do not do this.
The mussel broth must be poured through a very fine sieve or cloth, as it will contain sand.
Place the mussel flesh in the filtered broth.
Cooking the pasta
Now you can add spaghetti to boiling water and we would not recommend any other pasta shape than spaghetti and its close relatives (vermicelli, linguine, spaghettini, spaghettoni) for this dish. Unlike usual, you should only lightly salt the pasta water, otherwise the end result could be too salty overall.
Also, do not cook the pasta until it is completely done, i.e. until it is “al dente”. Check the recommended cooking time on the packet and cook the spaghetti for 3-4 minutes less. They will finish cooking later in the mussel broth, thereby absorbing more of its delicious flavour.
The sauce
Heat some olive oil again in a pan over a medium-high heat. Add finely chopped garlic and coarsely chopped parsley leaves. We also add halved or quartered cherry tomatoes for more fruitiness, but you can also prepare the dish without tomatoes.
A little spiciness goes very well with this. If you like, crumble a little dried peperoncino into the pan or add fine strips of fresh chili without seeds. We use the latter.
Sauté everything briefly and then pour over the mussel stock – without the mussel meat. Cook the spaghetti in this mixture until they have the perfect bite. Do not put a lid on, the broth should concentrate. If you have too little liquid, add some of the water in which the pasta was cooked.
When the spaghetti are cooked, add the mussel flesh to the pan, along with a few spoonfuls of pasta water, if this has not already been done, as it contains starch from the pasta. Then toss the spaghetti thoroughly in the pan so that the starch binds the sauce. In Italian cuisine, this is called “mantecatura”. Here is a short video showing the correct technique.
Our tip: add a little cold butter to the pasta when making the mantecatura to make the sauce even better.
And that’s all there is to it. Preparation is simple and very quick. The result tastes wonderfully of the sea. One of our favorite dishes with spaghetti.
Enjoy.
And may the taste be with you.
Ingredients (for 2 people):
For the mussel stock:
1 kg mussels in their shells, alive
2 tbsp olive oil
Stems of 1 handful of parsley
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
0.1 l white wine
250 g best Spaghetti
2 tbsp olive oil
1 clove of garlic, chopped
Leaves of 1 handful of parsley, chopped
Cherry tomatoes to taste, halved or quartered
Optional: some fresh chili without seeds or crumbled peperoncino
Also optional: 1 – 2 tsp cold butter
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