Today I’m sharing with you a main dish that I often make when I have guests for lunch: Pasta with Mussels and Creamy Potatoes. An economical fish recipe, very simple and quite flavorful. Making pasta with mussels and potatoes is a breeze, but to make it really good, you need a few little tricks. First of all, cooking the potatoes in the filtered water from the mussels adds all the extra flavor that normally cooked potatoes wouldn’t provide. In Bari and generally in Puglia, we often prepare cavatelli with beans and mussels, but I assure you that the combination with potatoes is also perfect.
- Difficulty: Very easy
- Cost: Economical
- Preparation time: 15 Minutes
- Portions: 4
- Cooking methods: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: All seasons
- Energy 429.44 (Kcal)
- Carbohydrates 46.71 (g) of which sugars 1.65 (g)
- Proteins 21.36 (g)
- Fat 18.21 (g) of which saturated 3.18 (g)of which unsaturated 2.78 (g)
- Fibers 3.63 (g)
- Sodium 555.42 (mg)
Indicative values for a portion of 200 g processed in an automated way starting from the nutritional information available on the CREA* and FoodData Central** databases. It is not food and / or nutritional advice.
* CREATES Food and Nutrition Research Center: https://www.crea.gov.it/alimenti-e-nutrizione https://www.alimentinutrizione.it ** U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central, 2019. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov
Ingredients
- 320 g paccheri
- 500 g mussels
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1 pinch pepper
- 400 g potatoes
- 3 cloves garlic
- 1 glass water (hot)
- 1 bunch parsley
Tools
- Kitchen Gadget immersion blender
- 1 Pan
- 1 Ladle
Steps
In a non-stick pan, heat the EVO oil with garlic cloves and parsley stem.
Add the mussels and cook until they open and release their water.
As soon as they open, shell them and set aside.
At this point, filter the mussel water and set aside.
In the same pan, cook the potatoes cut into small cubes with EVO oil.
Add the filtered mussel water and continue cooking.
After a few minutes, add some hot water and continue cooking until the potatoes become soft.
Once cooked, transfer the potatoes to a bowl and blend with the immersion blender.
until a smooth cream is obtained.
Add the pepper.
Boil the rigatoni pasta.
Add a ladle of pasta cooking water to the potato cream.
Halfway through the pasta cooking, drain and pour it into the pan with the cream. Cook it like risotto until the pasta is fully cooked.
Near the end of cooking, add the mussels.
Add some chopped parsley and serve.
