Mussels with Tomato, Garlic and Italian Sausage

Do you ever peruse the grocery isles and wish that someone would invent some kind of new food. Not one of those frankenfoods that lurk in the interior isles of the supermarket, just a new food. Hmmm, what to have for dinner…Pork, meh. Beef, had that last night. Chicken, chicken, chicken. Fish, maaayybbeee. Then your eye starts to roam farther afield and lands on a big bunch of mussels. Yeah, mussels.

The best thing about mussels is that they are relatively cheap and they are very easy to prepare. I purchased about 8 lbs of farmed mussels at Costco to have for dinner tonight, then it turned out that only hubby and I were going to be home to dine. Guess what we’ll be eating for the next few days?

All you need to cook mussels is some flavourful liquid to steam them in. My go-to is a tomato based broth with onion and garlic. Sometimes I’ll go for something closer to a cioppino and include shrimp and other seafoods but this is a pretty forgiving dish. Some days I make it spicy, sometimes I’ll add a bit of honey or a drop of liquid stevia to give the spice some contrast.

Tonight I added a bit of mild Italian sausage to my broth to round out the flavour and offer a little added protein, especially since these were small, though abundant, mussels.

Since we are not eating grains, and therefore foregoing the obligatory slice of hearty french garlic toast, I decided to add a bit more veg and some substance to the broth by including some halved cherry tomatoes. I’m not really convinced that this step made enough of a difference either in taste or in texture so I’ve left it as optional in the recipe.

An extra sprinkle of parsley at the plating stage brings some lovely colour contrast to the final dish.

Steve has a weird obsession with stacking his emptied mussel shells. Those are his to the right side of the bowl. I try. Sort of.

Mussels with Tomato, Garlic and Italian Sausage

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 40 minutes

Servings: 4

Author: Mia Staysko, www.miasdailydish.com

A quick, easy and highly adaptable way to prepare mussels

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Ingredients

• 5 lbs scrubbed and debearded mussels
• 1 Tbsp healthy fat of choice
• 1 med onion chopped
• 4 cloves garlic minced or crushed
• 2-4 uncooked Italian sausages mild or hot sliced
• 1 540 ml can diced tomatoes
• chili spice mix
• 3 Tbsp chopped parsley divided

Instructions

1. Heat oil in heavy dutch oven, add onion and sauté until just softened.
2. Slice sausage and add to pot. Heat until nearly cooked through, stirring once or twice.
3. Add garlic, cook until fragrant but not brown
4. Add tomatoes, 2 Tbsp parsley and spices to the pot, stirring just to mix.
5. Cover and reduce heat to med-low, simmer 25 minutes
6. Meanwhile: put mussels in cold water in the sink or a large bowl to rinse. Pull or scrape off any of the hairy 'beards' that may still be attached to the mussels. Discard any broken shells and any mussels that do not close when tapped on the side of the sink, these are dead.
7. When broth is ready, toss the mussels into the pot and close the lid. You may need to increase the heat a bit so the mussels will steam. The mussels are finished when they open.
8. Serve in a shallow bowl with some of the broth. Garnish with a little additional chopped parsley and a lemon wedge if desired.

Recipe Notes

This recipe is highly adaptable, you can adjust the spice to your liking or even add an assortment of seafood to turn it into a seafood stew.