I had been craving Chilli Mussels for weeks after a seeing a friend post a restaurant plate of this tasty seafood dish. So one free afternoon I trekked to my local fishmonger and grabbed a some fresh mussels to get me started on this family favourite.

When buying the ingredients for this recipe, I would strongly suggest you seek out the cleaned and ready to cook mussels if you want to serve this dish up quick. I opted to buy the uncleaned ones and it took a really long time to clean and scrub the mussels clean; I had spent about an hour in front of the sink cleaning the mussels and it took us half that time to clean it up. Having said this, you can definitely taste the difference between fresh produce from the fishmonger and frozen packaged mussels.

Accompanied by freshly sliced buttered bread, this dish was the perfect meal to eat as we watched the footy by the fireplace.

INGREDIENTS

– 2 teaspoons olive oil
– 1 brown onion, finely diced
– 2 garlic cloves, crushed
– 1 teaspoon chilli flakes
– 1 Tablespoon tomato paste
– 1kg tomatoes, finely chopped
– 1 lemon, rind finely grated and juiced
– 2 teaspoons caster sugar
– half cup dry white wine
– 1.5kg mussels, cleaned with beards removed
– half cup flat-leaf parsley leaves, roughly chopped
– crusty bread with butter to serve

METHOD

Step 1. Heat oil in a large, deep saucepan over medium heat (I used a massive wok!). Add onion, garlic and chilli, stirring for 3 minutes or until onion is soft.

Step 2. Add tomato paste and cook for one minute.

Step 3. Add tomato, lemon rind, lemon juice, sugar and wine to pan. Stir well until combined. Increase the heat to high to bring the sauce to the boil. Once at boiling point, reduce the heat back to medium and simmer, uncovered, until the sauce thickens (this takes about 8-10 minutes). Season the sauce with salt and pepper.

Step 4. Add mussels to the sauce. Cover and cook, shaking the pan occasionally, until the mussel shells open (this takes about 3 – 5 minutes). Discard any unopened shells.