Moules à la Marinière Adapted from Mastering the Art of French Cooking
Ingredients
1/4 cup all-purpose flour 3 quarts (about 3 pounds) Maine mussels, scrubbed and debearded 1 cup dry white wine, such as Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Grigio 1/4 cup minced scallions, shallots, or leeks 4 parsley sprigs, plus 1/4 cup roughly chopped parsley for garnish 1/2 of a bay leaf 1/2 tsp roughly chopped fresh lemon thyme freshly ground black pepper to taste 3 tablespoons unsalted butter 1 baguette, in 1/2-inch slices, drizzled with olive oil and toasted
Directions
- Whisk together the flour and 4 cups of water in a large mixing bowl. Add the cleaned mussels to the flour-water mixture, topping off with water as needed to cover the mussels. Allow the mussels at least an hour of soaking time in order to ensure that they disgorge any sand and grit.
- Bring the wine, minced onion, parsley sprigs, bay leaf, thyme, pepper, and butter to a simmer in a large (6+ quarts) stockpot over high heat.
- Meanwhile, drain the mussels from their flour and water liquid, and rinse once more.
- Add the clean mussels to the stockpot, top with the lid and shake vigorously from time to time, in order to ensure that the mussels cook evenly. Continue with this for 5 minutes, or until the majority of the mussel shells have opened (this is your indication that they’re cooked through).
- Serve the mussels in large shallow bowls, and ladle over some of their briny broth on top. Garnish with minced parsley, and serve with crusty bread…
I made Giada’s anchovy toasted crostini with provolone to serve alongside the big bowl of mussels.
Serves 3-4.
Note: Discard any mussels whose shells are cracked or open when raw discard ones that are not open after steaming.
Cucina Magia 