Iberia · Volume 05, The Rías, the Feira and the Road to Santiago
Mejillones a la Gallega
Coastal Galicia
Illustration
- Time
- 30 minutes
Galicia grows more mussel than anywhere else in Europe, on suspended rope rafts, bateas, whose own inventor is a genuine, unresolved local dispute this chapter does not adjudicate between three separately named claimants. The mussel itself owes its quality to the ría upwelling described above, and this dish treats it with correspondingly little interference.
As tradition built it
About 25 to 30 minutes.
Ingredients
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 2 cloves garlic
- as needed olive oil
- 1 tbsp pimentón dulce
- a splash a splash of white wine
- 1 tin chopped tomatoes
- 1kg mussels, cleaned and debearded
- a small handful parsley, chopped
- to serve bread, to serve
Method
- Sweat the onion and garlic in olive oil until soft.
- Stir in the pimentón dulce off the heat to avoid scorching it, then add the white wine and chopped tomatoes, and simmer 10 minutes to a loose sauce.
- Add the mussels, cover, and steam for 4 to 5 minutes until they open, discarding any that do not.
- Finish with chopped parsley and serve with bread for the sauce.
What a modern chef changes
Mussels steamed separately in Albariño, folded back in off the heat
Method
- Steam the mussels separately and briefly in a splash of Albariño rather than in the tomato sauce itself, so they cook for exactly as long as they need and no longer.
- Strain and reduce the mussel liquor into the tomato and pimentón base.
- Fold the mussels back through only at the very end, off the heat, to finish gently in the residual warmth of the sauce rather than cooking a second time.
Notes
This keeps the mussel's own texture the whole point of the dish, rather than something the sauce has to compensate for.