Moules marinieres

Moules marinieres are one of my fav foods.  I don't have them that often and honestly don't know why.  They're so easy!  They're called "Sailors' mussels" and are traditionally served with fries.  I made mine with rice, which gave plenty of ways to scoop the sauce into my mouth.

This is one of those recipes that you make "au pif" (by the nose) and just throw things into a saucepan in kind of general ratios.  You'll see what I mean.

Gather:

olive oil

1 onion or shallot, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 bottle of dry white wine

1 lb cleaned, fresh mussels for each person

1-2 roma tomatoes, diced

salt and pepper

cream (optional)

Something to serve it with.  As I said, I made mine with rice because it's what I had in the house.

Clean the mussels and scrape off the beards.  They're pesky buggers.  I used a sharp paring knife for this.  Mine were pretty muddy, so I scrubbed them with a brush, too.

Saute your onion or shallots and garlic in some olive oil.

Pour in some of that wine and bring it to a boil.  I used about 3/4 cup.  Once it's boiling, throw in the tomatoes and mussels, clamp on the lid, and wait 2-3 minutes. 

I had 1 mussel that didn't open so I left it in the broth for another minute.  Sure enough, it popped open!  Discard any mussels that don't open: they were dead before the cooking started and can't be trusted with your intestinal health.

Remove all the mussels with a slotted spoon and put them into bowls.  These bowls had some rice in the bottom.

Turn your attention back to the pot.  Now it's time for the magic!  Bring the broth back to a boil and reduce it by half.  This won't take long.  If you want, pour in 1 turn of cream - you know, as much cream as goes in as you circle the pan once.  Add the parsley, ladle that yumminess over the mussels, and you're done!

This would be heavenly with a crusty bread.  You do not want to lose oen drop of the terrific broth in the bottom of the bowl.