Rice Soup with Potatoes and Mussels, a simple yet flavorful dish, perfect if you want to impress someone at the table without much effort!
Inspired by one of the typical dishes of the Apulian tradition, the tiella barese, I decided to prepare a lovely rice soup with potatoes and mussels.
A first course based on fish suitable for any occasion, a Sunday lunch, for holidays or events such as during the Christmas festivities.
Grab a pen and paper and jot down the ingredients for this recipe, they are simple and genuine.
Ribe Curtiriso rice, a type of long-grain rice, renowned for its elongated, crystalline grains that remain compact, dry, and well-separated after cooking.
Thanks to its characteristics, Ribe Curtiriso rice is suitable for everyday use, particularly indicated for preparing risottos, soups, timballs, stuffed vegetables, sides, etc.
Then you’ll need mussels, potatoes, onion, oil, parsley, and a bit of tomato sauce to give color to the soup! No strange or hard-to-find ingredients.
This soup is ideal to serve when you crave a complete, filling, and genuine dish. We can serve it with more broth or dryer, based on our preferences.
Great also for the Christmas holidays, perhaps for the Christmas Eve lunch or the New Year’s Eve dinner.
Make sure to read until the end, you’ll find useful tips for making this recipe and a little gift for you ❤️
If you’re a rice lover, don’t miss these tasty recipes to try:
- Difficulty: Very Easy
- Cost: Medium
- Preparation time: 20 Minutes
- Portions: 2 people
- Cooking methods: Stove
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: All Seasons
Ingredients
- 1 cup Ribe rice (Curtiriso)
- 2 potatoes (weight with skin about 8 oz)
- 2 tablespoons tomato sauce
- 9 oz mussels (fresh or frozen, net weight without shell)
- to taste chopped parsley
- salt
- Half onion
- chili pepper (only if you like)
- olive oil (about 2 tablespoons)
Tools
- Pan
- Casserole
- Strainer
- Ladle
- Sponge
Steps
The only slightly tedious thing to do to make this rice soup is to clean the mussels if we’ve decided to get them fresh.
We can also get help from the fishmonger or decide to use frozen ones.
Let’s see how to clean them ourselves in this case 😉
Place the mussels in a bowl and run them under cold water. Then use the back of a knife to remove all encrustations present on the shell.
Detach the beard that protrudes by pulling it with your fingers. Then, under cold water, clean the shell well with a steel wool pad to remove any impurities.
Take a pan and put a tablespoon of olive oil inside. Throw in the mussels, sprinkle with a handful of fresh chopped parsley, cover with a lid, and let them open over medium heat for a few minutes.
As they open, remove them from the pan and set them aside. Remove the shell but leave a couple per person for the final decoration.
Remember, the mussels that remain in the pan without opening must be discarded, they cannot be consumed.
Strain the cooking liquid through a strainer and set it aside.
Peel the potatoes, wash them well, and cut them into small cubes of equal size.
Chop half an onion finely, put it in a high-sided casserole, and add olive oil.
Put the potatoes inside, lower the flame to minimum, and let them cook for about ten minutes.
Add the tomato sauce and some of the mussels’ cooking liquid (filtered, remember).
Let it cook and add a bit more cooking water if necessary.
Having cut the potatoes into small cubes, they will cook quickly. After about ten minutes, add the Ribe Curtiriso Rice to the casserole.
At this point, adjust the salt, add a bit of chili pepper if you like, and a little finely chopped fresh parsley.
Cook, gradually adding the mussels’ cooking liquid, and when it runs out, use water or vegetable broth.
If you prefer a “looser” soup, add more liquids; otherwise, add less, based on your preferences.
Once ready, incorporate the mussels without the shell, stir for just a few seconds, and then plate.
Decorate each plate with a couple of mussels with the shell and a sprinkle of finely chopped fresh parsley.
Your rice soup with potatoes and mussels is ready to hit the table and amaze everyone!
I hope this recipe made you hungry and eager to try it! Until next time!
Article protected by copyright © – Gabriella Geroni © All Rights Reserved
FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
Can this dish be made with pasta?
Yes, of course, it can be. Obviously, they will be very different from each other, but both are excellent options!
What can I use instead of mussels?
As for the previous question, I find it hard to imagine requests for replacing one of the main ingredients of the recipe! If the dish is created this way, modifying it inevitably means obtaining a different product.
However, everyone has their tastes and needs, so if you simply don’t like or can’t eat them due to any intolerance (or other reasons), the mussels can be replaced with clams or even omitted to create a vegan-vegetarian recipe.Can I skip the tomato sauce?
Absolutely! The tomato sauce is only for adding a touch of color to the dish, but it’s not essential.
Are potatoes essential?
This recipe is inspired by a famous dish, the tiella barese, which is prepared precisely with rice, potatoes, and mussels; that’s why there are potatoes. You can remove them, but in that case, you’ll get a different dish from the one I proposed.
