I can’t give up the tiella barese with potatoes, mussels, and rice, but with the intense heat, it’s impossible to turn on the oven… so? I prepare a nice risotto with potatoes, mussels, and rice. Today I just couldn’t resist, I had a great craving to eat it, but with 104°F, the oven is banned, and I decided to prepare the same dish simply with an alternative cooking method to not give up this wonderful dish of ours, especially in the very hot period. Maybe it’s also a nice and different idea to present this much-loved Apulian first course or another idea for those who love risottos. The ingredients are always the same, but we put them all together and cook them in a pan. Try it and see. Here is the step-by-step recipe.

Difficulty: Easy
Cost: Cheap
Preparation time: 30 Minutes
Portions: 4
Cooking methods: Stove
Cuisine: Italian

Ingredients

1 kg mussels
11 oz potatoes
9 oz cherry tomatoes
12 oz rice
1 onion
oil
salt
pepper
grated Parmesan
parsley
1 qt water (approximately)
1 clove garlic
onion
salt
mussel water

Tools

Knife
Wok

Steps

First, place the rice in a container with some water.
In a small pot, bring some water to a boil and blanch the tomatoes for a few minutes, let them cool, then peel them.
Open the mussels and remove the meat (the mussels should be opened raw, but if you can’t do it, just let them open for a few minutes in a pan), keep their water both if you open them raw and if you do it in the pan.
When you have finished opening the mussels, prepare the broth. In the pot, place water, oil, garlic, onion, parsley, mussel water (all that you have obtained), and a pinch of salt. Cook for about 15 minutes from when it starts to boil.
Clean the potatoes, cut them into not too large pieces, then rinse them a couple of times to remove some of the starch.
Now start preparing the risotto (all with the heat off). In the wok or a pot, add enough oil to cover the entire bottom, chopped onion, part of the chopped cherry tomatoes, parsley, pepper, and a pinch of salt.
Then add the potatoes, mussels, rice (soaked without the water), the remaining cherry tomatoes, parsley, pepper, oil, and a pinch of salt.
Add 2/3 ladles of filtered broth, covering all the rice. Turn on the heat to moderate flame and start cooking, adding more broth little by little until fully cooked. It will take about 20/25 minutes, taste the potato’s doneness before finishing.
Once cooked, turn off the heat and add a few tablespoons of Parmesan, mix well and plate.
The risotto with potatoes, mussels, and rice is ready!! Fantastic!
Enjoy your meal!