Mussels in Wine and Tomato

(Difficulty: Easy)

(Preparing and cooking time: 30 minutes excluding soaking for de-sanding)

One bag of Mussels

One tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil

2 or more (if you like) garlic cloves finely chopped

3 tablespoons of chopped onion

One Jalapeno finely chopped without seeds

3 to 4 plum tomatoes chopped

2-3 tables spoons of roughly chopped parsley

One cup of dry white wine

Soak mussels in salted water for a few hours to overnight so they will spit grits if there are any. You might be able to skip this procedure completely if they look rather clean, because nowadays cultivated mussels are often free of sand.

Still you have to scrub them and pull out some beards. Also the cultivation made this procedure less laborious.

Heat a large enough pan to hold all opened shellfish. Heat the oil and add garlic, 30 seconds later add onion. Do not brown onion and add jalapeno, tomato and parsley. Then add mussels and wine. Cover the pot and shake well. After 2 to 3 minutes open the pot and stir upside down. Cover and continue to steam until all the mussels open. Serve immediately to the plates and drain the soup except last spoonful so that grit won’t get to the plate if any.

Serves 2