The GRATINATED MUSSELS are a classic appetizer of the Italian culinary tradition. It’s a very showy, tasty and easy-to-prepare seafood dish, perfect to start a lunch or dinner on a festive day, perhaps together with scallops au gratin.
The important thing to get an excellent result is to have very fresh and well-cleaned mussels. Don’t be scared at the thought of cleaning so many shellfish because in the end it’s easier and quicker than it may seem, and the result will reward your effort.
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- Difficulty: Very easy
- Cost: Inexpensive
- Rest time: 1 Hour
- Preparation time: 20 Minutes
- Portions: 4 servings
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: All seasons
Ingredients
- 2.2 lbs mussels
- 1 clove garlic
- 9 oz white bread (crumbled)
- 2 oz Parmesan cheese
- 1/2 cup white wine
- to taste extra virgin olive oil
- 1 bunch parsley
- 10 leaves mint
- to taste salt
- to taste black pepper
Tools
- 1 Pan
- 1 Baking dish
- 1 Food processor
Steps
To prepare the GRATINATED MUSSELS the first thing to do is leave them immersed in water to purge for at least 1 hour.
Remove the byssal threads, scrape the shells with a knife, a steel sponge or a metal brush and rinse them well in plenty of cold water. This is an operation you can certainly entrust to your trusted fishmonger, but it’s always good to know how to proceed in case of emergency.
Gather the mussels in a pan, place over high heat, sprinkle with 3/4 of the white wine and cover.
As soon as the shells have opened, remove the mussels from the pan, discard those without flesh, strain the cooking liquid and set it aside.
Meanwhile, in the blender jar put the bread (I used sandwich bread), the chopped garlic, the Parmesan, the parsley and the mint. Then pulse everything coarsely.
Transfer the mixture and soften the bread with part of the mussel cooking liquid, the remaining white wine and mix well until you obtain a fairly firm mixture. Taste and, if necessary, adjust the salt.
Remove from each mussel the half shell that does not contain the flesh, arranging the filled half in a baking dish so that they do not overlap.
Fill each mussel with a teaspoon of the mixture and press it slightly.
Place them in a baking dish or on a baking sheet, finish with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and bake in a preheated oven (conventional) at 392°F for 15 minutes and under the grill for another 5 minutes.
When the gratin has reached a golden color, remove the mussels and sprinkle with lemon zest (which you can also add to the filling mixture if you wish) and more parsley.
Serve your gratinated mussels piping hot.
