Veronica Matheson got a hot tip from Ben Shewry of Attica last week about the growing popularity of blue mussels from Melbourne's Port Phillip Bay, so our intrepid reporter Veronica tracked down the mussel farmer, Lance Wiffen of Sea Bounty Mussels and spoke to him while he was at sea today.
Lizzie’s Tomato and Chilli Mussels
2kg fresh blue mussels
1 cup water
3 400g cans crushed or diced tomatoes
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tblspoon fresh basil
1-2 chilli, finely chopped
1 tblspoon olive oil
3 tblspoon tomato paste
1 tspoon sugar
1/ cup white wine
salt
pepper
Method: Rinse clean the mussels and pull out the beard.
Place mussels into wide, heavy pan with water. Cover and cook for approximately 5–7 minutes, gently shaking the pan now and again. In a seperate sauce pan saute garlic in olive oil for 2 minutes over low to medium heat. Add tomato paste and stir for a further 2 minutes.
Keep stirring so the tomato paste doesn’t burn. Add tomatoes, chopped chilli, fresh basil, sugar, salt and pepper and white wine.
Reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Add steamed mussels and allow to warm through. Turn off heat. Garnish with fresh basil.
Serve with crusty bread. As alternative add this to spaghetti for a main meal.
Serves 4
(Recipe: Courtesy of Sea Bounty Mussels)