Mussel and Clam Stew, an easy recipe for a truly versatile and delicious dish.
In fact, you can accompany this dish with some toast, or use the recipe to dress a pasta dish.
The only advice I leave is the cleaning of mussels and clams, which you will find in detail in the recipe.
If you have a trusted vendor equipped with a mussel cleaning machine, you can try asking if they can do this work, which takes a little longer by hand.
If you love seafood recipes instead, you will find some ideas below for inspiration.
- Difficulty: Very Easy
- Cost: Inexpensive
- Rest time: 1 Hour
- Preparation time: 30 Minutes
- Portions: 4
- Cooking methods: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: All Seasons
Ingredients
- 2.2 lbs mussels
- 2.2 lbs clams
- 2 vine tomatoes
- 3 tbsps extra virgin olive oil
- 3.5 oz fine salt (for purging the clams)
- 3 cloves garlic
- to taste parsley (fresh, chopped)
Tools
- 1 Knife
- 2 Bowls
- 1 Pan
- 1 Strainer
- Toothpicks
- 1 Cutting board
Steps
To make the Mussel and Clam Stew, first, let’s focus on cleaning them.
Place the clams in a large bowl with water and salt to purge for at least an hour before cooking.
In the meantime, with the help of a small knife, remove the “beard” from the mussel, pulling from the wide side towards the narrow side.
Finally, scrape the shell to remove external impurities.
Rinse and let rest in a large colander.
In the meantime, rinse the clams as well.
In a very large pan or wok, place the clams and mussels to open on low heat.
Once they are all open, turn off the heat and filter the cooking water with a fine mesh strainer into a bowl or a large pitcher.
This way, you will retain all the impurities and can reuse the cooking water from the mussels and clams.
In the meantime, wash, dry, and chop the tomatoes.
Clean the garlic by removing the skin and cutting the central part.
With the help of a small knife, extract the core and secure the garlic pieces with one or two toothpicks.
This operation will make it easier to remove the garlic without having to search for the pieces in the pan.
Wash, dry, and chop the parsley finely.
In the pan used before, pour the oil, brown the garlic, and add the chopped tomatoes and the previously filtered cooking water from the mussels and clams.
Add the mussels and clams and let them cook for 7-8 minutes on low heat.
Remove the garlic, turn off the heat, and garnish with fresh chopped parsley.
Adjust salt if needed.
Serve this dish hot with the suggestions given above.
If desired, during cooking, you can add fresh bell pepper cut into cubes.
Alternatively, at the end of cooking, add chili pepper to taste.
