Moules à la Provençale
We love mussels and our favourite is the classic Moules Marinière which is, of course, mussels cooked in wine not mussels cooked with wine and cream which is ‘Moules à la Crème’ which any self respecting resident of the French town Saint-Valery-sur-Somme, which is famous for its mussels, on the bay of the Somme will tell you. Having said that, sometimes you just want something a bit different. We had a dish recently in Spain which is very similar to Moules à la Provençale so we decided we would make them at home. This is quite a different dish but we thoroughly enjoyed it.
Moules à la Provençale
Servings: 2 people
Calories: 606kcal
Ingredients
- 1 kg Fresh Mussels
- 50 ml Olive Oil don't use extra virgin, it's a waste, old slag is just fine!
- 15 g Butter
- 2 large Tomatoes the riper the better
- 2 Shallots finely chopped
- 175 ml White Wine that leaves just the right amount to eat with dinner!
- 2 cloves Garlic peeled and sliced
- ½ tsp Paprika not smoked and not hot
- ½ tsp Chilli Flakes
- ½ tsp Sea Salt good quality is worth it here
- 1 small handful Fresh Basil
Instructions
- Peel and deseed the tomatoes first. This is easiest done by scoring a cross in the bottom of the tomato and plunging it into boiling water for 30 seconds before then plunging into ice cold water. This skin should come off easily. Once deseeded, chop the tomatoes roughly, read for cooking. The French have a much easier word for this 'concasse', to peel, deseed and roughly chop a tomato!
- In a large pan melt the butter with the olive oil (the oil stops the butter from burning) and then add the shallots, garlic, tomatoes, chilli flakes, paprika and salt. Cover the pan and cook over a low heat from about 8-10 minutes
- Once the vegetables have all softened, add the white wine and cook for a further 5 minutes
- Add the mussels and the basil which has been roughly sliced, into the pan and cook over a high heat for 5 minutes, no more. Serve immediately and enjoy with some crusty bread and a glass of that remaining wine!
Nutrition
Calories: 606kcal | Carbohydrates: 25g | Protein: 33g | Fat: 35g | Saturated Fat: 8g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 4g | Monounsaturated Fat: 20g | Trans Fat: 0.2g | Cholesterol: 88mg | Sodium: 1385mg | Potassium: 1432mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 8g | Vitamin A: 2560IU | Vitamin C: 48mg | Calcium: 114mg | Iron: 12mg