I first wrote about mussels a few months here and it was the first time I had ever made mussels. Since then I have made that recipe a few times and it continues to be delicious.

Mussels are something that I make when I have the apartment to myself.  My “roommate” doesn’t do mussels and I generally cook for two so I forgo them.  Recently I was gifted with the place to myself for almost a week so mussels were definitely on that week’s menu plan.  While I love my usual recipe I wanted something different so I turned to Lidia Bastianich and she had a recipe for mussels in tomato sauce.

Because of the lack of chopping here this recipe is EVEN EASIER than my usual recipe.  How is that even possible?  Bastianich recommends soaking the mussels in water with cornmeal in it to clean them.  I decided to skip this step since a good scrub seems to do the trick. Once cleaning was done it was on to making the super simple sauce.  And by super simple I mean frying sliced garlic and then adding tomatoes, herbs.

This dish could be a great appetizer sans pasta but with a ton of crusty bread to mop up the saucy goodness.  I needed a meal so I served the mussels with pasta.  In the end I had a lot of sauce left on my plate, luckily I had a baguette on hand to mop up the goodness.

I’m always amazed by how much of an elegant and cheap meal mussels make.  This time around I paid $1.99/lb for the mussels.  I bought only a pound since I knew I was eating pasta as well and it was the perfect portion. I’m sure if I calculated the cost of this meal it would come in under $5.  This is definitely one of the greatest meals I’ve made in awhile.

 

 

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5 Responses to Mussels in Spicy Tomato Sauce

  1. Kelly says:

    Wow I love your presentation, this looks wonderful! I clicked on your link as soon as I saw spicy tomato sauce, yum!! :)

  2. Oooooh!! This looks divine! When I go to Italian restaurants this is my favorite dish to order… And they charge much more than $5! LOL!

    • whatsonmyplate says:

      I honestly can’t order mussels at restaurants anymore. Not only are they SO cheap to make at home but they are BEYOND easy to make.

  3. Camille says:

    Don’t you love how fast and tasty mussels are? So excited it’s mussel season again!

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