Sleepy August is a perfect time for a casual dinner party with your friends who are still in town. Mussels strike the right balance, casual, messy, sumptuous and copious. There's no point inviting fussy people who are afraid of getting dirty- food can be a lusty messy business. This meal certainly is- red broth sloshing around, blue-black mussel shells crashing into bowls. Candlelight would make it all look very bacchanalian/romantic. But we had ours in the light of the afternoon; I love a table strewn with the chaos of a good meal. There's no shame in a dirty tablecloth- it's the bedroom hair of table settings.
It can be very festive to serve lots and lots of one fabulous thing. Saline, brothy, spicy, tender, and curiously sweet- this is that thing. It is not complicated; it simply needs a big pot and lots of big bowls for serving, and for tossing the pretty blue empty shells into.
Mussels are the ideal combination of very festive and very inexpensive. I suppose they make for poor leftovers, but I don't know- we've never had any. A kilo for 2 is not really enough. if you are going for the mood of abandon, get a kilo per person. I find slightly less to be fine- 3 kilos for 4 people, 7 kilos for 9, etc. They are a lots of work to scrape clean and de-beard. If you are making them for more than 4, you will find that many hands make for pleasant work. The best dinner parties start in the kitchen.
With steel wool and a short knife (and perhaps gloves), attack the outsides of the mussels, scraping them clean of barnacles and plant matter. Do not remove the "beard"- this that is attached to the middle of the flat side of the shell. Do that just before cooking.
For every kilo of mussels, we will need 2 cloves of garlic and 2 fat tomatoes. Slice the garlic and grate the tomatoes. We will also need dried red chilies, to taste- one for every 2 kilos makes a spicy enough dish. You could add more at the table. The mussels provide their own salt.
For 4, we will need:
3 kilos of mussels
a half glass of olive oil
6 large tomatoes
6 cloves of garlic
1 or 2 dried red chilies
ground black pepper to taste
a shot of ouzo
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| An ouzo tasting at Eva Distillery, Lesvos. I loved the Sertiko. |
Grate the tomatoes on the large holes of a box grater and set aside. In your largest pan, heat the olive oil and saute the sliced garlic until it begins to turn golden. Add the chilies, then the tomatoes and let them cook down a little, for 10 minutes or so. The mussels make lots of their own broth.
Any mussels that are not tightly shut at this point should be tossed out. Add the clean and de-bearded mussels to the pot. The mussels in the hot red sauce will open nearly at once. Try to lift them to the top and work the closed mussels to the bottom. They are done when they are open wide, and then they begin to shrink. The goal is to have wide open, fully cooked but still fat mussels.
Add *ouzo to taste- the sweet anise flavor plays well with the brininess of the mussels and the heat of the chilies.
Lay the table with soup spoons, forks, bowls for the discarded shells, and lots of napkins. Serve in shallow bowls with lots of broth. You'll want bread, and maybe a little slightly under-cooked pasta to throw into the bowls and soak up the sauce. To drink, these are nice with anything- red sauce/red wine, more of the ouzo with water and ice, or cold beer.
These will keep everyone at the table for a long time, and there is nothing more festive than that.
*I had a intimate, vivacious introduction to the complexities and delights of ouzo at the Eva Distillery in Levsos. I will be writing with warmth about the culture of ouzo in itself soon. With anything spicy or anything salty form the sea, it is the most refreshing companion.
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