Mussel pasta

Doug Sherring

We used our New Zealand green-lipped mussels in a simple but delicious pasta dish. The sauce is made from good-quality olive oil that you heat and cook the mussels in. Adding the garlic and tomatoes once the mussels have just opened ensures the flavours remain strong. You can use any kind of pasta you like but we found this pasta which was similar to the pasta they used in the dish in Italy in our local supermarket.

Ingredients

300 g	Pasta, we used Gemelli pasta (Main)
½ cup	Olive oil
4 cloves	Garlic, sliced thinly
16	Mussels, cleaned and debearded (Main)
½ cup	Chopped parsley
1 punnet	Cherry tomatoes
1	Lemon, juiced

Directions

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil (it should taste like the sea) add the pasta and cook until tender. This should take about about 12 minutes.
2. In a large pot, heat the oil and add the mussels. Put a lid on and cook the mussels until they are just opening. Add the garlic and cook for another 3 minutes before adding the chilli and tomatoes. Mix everything together.
3. Drain the pasta once cooked and add to the pot with the mussels. Finish with the lemon juice and parsley, then season to taste.

More Italian recipes from Kasey and Karena

• Meatballs with mushrooms
• Melon and parma ham salad