Italian Cuisine
Ingredients:
- 1 kg (2 lb)
mussels or clams in their shells.
- 1 small onion.
- 1 garlic clove.
- 1 thyme twig.
- 1 bay leaf.
- 1 dried chili.
- Olive oil.
- 2 stick butter.
- Mascarpone
(optional).
- Cognac.
- 2 cups risotto
rice.
- 1 small glass
white wine.
- ½ tsp Salt.
- ¼ tsp pepper.
Directions:
- You can use
most other edible sea shells for this recipe.
- Wash the
mussels well under running water and remove all the veins beyond it.
- Crush the garlic,
under the largest knife.
- Heat oil large
pot on high heat and add the garlic.
- When the
garlic starts to turn slightly sandy, add the mussels and the thyme, bay leaf
and a dried Serrano chili. No salt will be needed.
- Keep the pot
on a high heat. At first the mussels will be like nothing happened, but soon
they'll start opening up.
- As the mussels
open up, they will release the precious mussel juice that will start to boil.
- If you have
too many mussels and fear that the ones on top might not be hot enough to open
just yet, you might add a small glass of water to increase the quantity of
steam in your pot.
- Remove the
mussels to a cooler spot, and delicately take out the fleshy portion inside.
- Do not throw
away the shells, but add them to a small pot of boiling water or fish stock
which we'll use for the risotto.
- Choose the
nicest looking mussels and save one per plate, with the flesh intact.
- You have to be
careful, filter the mussel juice through the finest sieve you have.
- Chop the onion
into small pieces with a knife and finely dice your onion.
- Melt a
generous piece of butter in a saucepan and add the onion.
- Do not wash
the rice. Washing rice is designed to remove the microscopic rice flour
generated by rice grains rubbing each other in the bag. We need that flour as
it will help make your risotto sticky.
- When the onion
is soft, add the rice, and toss until each rice grain is fully coated in fat.
- A drop of a nondescript
white wine, as soon as the alcohol has evaporated, the mussel juice. Mix well
over medium-high heat.