Mussels In Red Sauce

The Ingredients

• 2 pounds of mussels (frozen or live)
• 1 small can of tomatoes with chilies
• 1/2 cup of white wine
• 1 medium onion
• 3 cloves of garlic (minced)
• 1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil
• 1 Tbls of tomato paste
• Italian seasoning
• Salt
• Pepper

The Recipe

1. If you bought frozen mussels you can just boil them in the bag they came inside of until they open up. If you are dealing with live mussels then you need to boil them live until they open up.  The whole thing should only take about 10 minutes in boiling water.
2. On a large deep frying pan saute the onions in the olive oil.  
3. After a couple of minutes add the garlic.
4. Let it cook for about 2 minutes then add the wine.  Reduce for a minute.
5. Add the diced tomatoes with chilies, the tomato paste, and all the seasoning. 
6. Let everything simmer for about 3 minutes. 
7. Remove your mussels from the boiling water and add to the sauce.  If you are using the frozen kind pour the mussel juice from the bag into the sauce.  It's full of flavor.  If you boiled live ones, then just add about 1 cup of the boiling water to the sauce.  
8. Serve with bread, white rice, or by itself.

The Experience

These mussels are the easiest thing to make.  I get mine at Walmart.  It's frozen but it's excellent in taste!  I actually can't tell the difference from eating the recently live ones to these frozen farm raised ones.  You can be very creative with sauces!  I have tried white sauces in the past but I like this one the best.  You can literally eat 15 of these mussels very quickly.  They are inexpensive and make a very beautiful and impressive presentation.  Sometimes I add them to fish dishes as a garnish!  For the Birthday party I made 4 pounds.  Calculate 2 pounds being enough for 2 to 3 people.  Depending how hungry they are.  I usually like to have more than enough.  Running out of food to serve is not a good thing.  Here's a tip... if you have a heating tray use it!  These mussels get cold very quickly while serving.  I will continue to make these but I might get creative with my next sauce!  We'll see!