Marinara Mussels

Mussels are a delight in the summer since they are easy to steam, or cook in a boiling pot of something.  Whatever is in the pot will marinate into the mussels as they open in cook.  This is a simple recipe using a simple Marinara sauce that you can buy at the grocery store. 

Ingredients: 
1 pound of mussels
1 cup of marinara sauce

Directions:
1. Clean the mussels.  I usually put them in a colander and then run cold water over them.  Using a small scrub brush for a deeper cleaning and pull the “beards” off them if you need to. 

2. Check each mussel to be sure that it is still “alive” and fresh.  To do this you can either tap them to see if they are extremely hollow (hollow means dead), or if you have an open mussel, push it closed.  If it stays closed then it is alive and fresh, if it opens back up to the same amount then its dead. Mussels can die in between buying them and getting home with them so double check!

3. Place clean mussels in an appropriate size pot.

4. Pour in a cup of watered down marinara (mix some water in so that it’s not as thick)

5. Place on stovetop at medium-high heat.

6. Mussels are done when they are all opened, for my batch this was about 10 minutes. 

7. Serve with crusty bread to soak up the marinara sauce and mussel juice. Remove from shells with finger or fork and ENJOY!!

Nutritional Information:

Recipe makes a serving size of 2. Also a key point to the nutrition here is that you don’t actually eat the entire cup of marinara sauce, they are just cooked in it.  I’m overestimating on the nutrifacts on this saying that each person is eating even a quarter cup of marinara, which some might do!  I know I didn’t!!  Now if you have bread with this, be sure to add in that value to this. 

My opinion on the Results:

I personally love mussels, and they can do well with lots of different flavors.  Mixing it with the marinara was a nice change from my normal white wine recipe.  This recipe is excellent for the pasta lover at heart, and can even change the type of wine that is served with it (red compared to the normal white people have with fish!).