Mussels in White Wine

‘Cozze al Vino Bianco’ as they call this dish in Italian.  Mussels in White Wine is basically steamed mussels, with a bit of olive oil, garlic, parsley and white wine.  Combine everything together and cover for a few minutes – and you’re all set!

The first time I had this dish was in Napoli, as an appetizer.  Sometimes they would add clams in it as well – result is still the same, a light appetizer with a sweet and refreshing broth that we just could not get enough of. 😀  You don’t even need to put salt in it, because the seafood is already salty enough on its own.  Tell you what though, the fresher the seafood, the sweeter the broth would be.  I guess, that goes with saying, eh? 😉

We normally pair it with bread, but sometimes, if we’re ordering pasta as our mains, we would totally skip the bread and just drink the broth on its own. When we do this, we do not use the spoon, we use one of the empty shells instead to scoop the broth – dunno why we do this, we just do (try it, it’s FUN!). 😀

Nowadays, I use my dutch oven to cook this at home.  As soon as I see the shells opening, I add the parsley, mix a bit, put the lid on and turn off the stove.  Wait for a few minutes and then it’s ready for serving. Come to think of it, it seems to take a longer time sorting through the mussels, checking for broken or slightly opened ones, than cooking this dish.  By the way, if you see broken or opened mussels, make sure you throw them away, ok? 🙂

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Mussels in White Wine

Prep Time

10 mins

Cook Time

8 mins

Total Time

18 mins

 

Course: Appetizer

Cuisine: Italian

Servings: 2

Ingredients

• 1 kg mussels, cleaned and scrubbed
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
• 1/3 cup dry white wine
• 3 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped plus a bit more if you want to garnish
• 1/8 tsp pepperoncino (dry chili flakes), optional

Instructions

1. Put a casserole or dutch oven on medium flame. Pour olive oil. Do not wait for oil to become hot, add the garlic and pepperoncino (if using) right away. As soon as the garlic becomes fragrant, pour the wine.

2. Add the mussels, mix to coat properly, turn the heat to high and put the lid on. Leave for two minutes.

3. Mix the mussels and by this time, they should have already started opening. Add the parsley, mix to combine. Put the lid back on and turn off the heat.

4. Serve after two to three minutes. Garnish with parsley if desired.