Cheesy Spaghetti with Fresh Mussels
No butter. No olive oil. The pasta sauce is reduced mussel broth thickened with melted cheeses. This cheesy spaghetti with fresh mussels makes a lovely lunch for one. But feel free to double or even quadruple the ingredients to share the love.
Ingredients
- 50 grams spaghetti or your preferred pasta shape
- 7 to 8 mussels soaked washed and debearded
- 1 generous splash white wine
- 50 grams cheese I used Monterey Jack, crumbled
- 25 grams cream cheese I used herbed cream cheese, crumbled
- salt
- pepper
- parsley to garnish
Instructions
- Cook the pasta according to package directions. Drain. Reserve one cup of the pasta water.
- Reheat the reserved pasta water and bring to the boil.
- Add the mussels to the boiling water. Pour in the white wine. Boil until the mussels open, about 2 to 3 minutes.
- Scoop out the mussels and allow the liquid to continue boiling until reduced to half. You want a more concentrated mussel stock with the full bodied flavor of the wine so reduce, reduce, reduce.
- Meanwhile, open the mussel shells and discard the empty halves.
- To the reduced liquid in the pan, add the crumbled cheeses. Stir until melted.
- Turn off the heat. Season lightly with salt and generously with pepper.
- Add the cooked pasta and mussels. Toss to coat.
Notes
Quick and easy dishes like this were my staple when my daughters were still in school, and my husband had not yet retired. I was by myself on weekdays and laboring over my lunch was, well… Let’s just say that easy always sounded better.
Updated from a recipe originally published in March 19, 2009
Updated from a recipe originally published in March 19, 2009
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