Linguini with Mussels

Hello again everyone! It's been a while since I last posted here. I've been busy with work, and with that, it means that I have not had time to cook anything blog worthy. I'm a landscape designer outside of my blog life and I am thankful that I have clients these days. Anyway, I've managed to squeeze in this quick meal. The weather has been in the mid to high 80's the past few days, and when it gets hot I crave a light seafood meal.
If you get lucky and you get really fresh seafood, boy oh boy, you could almost taste the ocean. I immediately get transported to a sunny beach. Warm air combing through my hair, warm sun kissing my cheek, seagulls singing above, and that distinct ocean smell.....you get the picture. Ok, back to my kitchen counter....


Ingredients

Linguini pasta (cooked al dente)
1-1/2 lbs mussels
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup whipping cream
3 cloves garlic (minced)
1/3 cup white wine
dried basil
dried parsley
salt & pepper to taste


Procedure
1. Cook the pasta till al dente. Set aside.
2. Wash the mussels thoroughly and drain.
3. Heat up the olive oil on low to medium heat and add the garlic. Do not brown the garlic.
4. Add the mussels. Stir until well coated with oil.
5. Add the wine and cover the pan. Simmer on low for about 5 minutes.
6. Add the cream, basil and parsley, and cover the pan. Simmer on low for about 5 minutes.
7. Season with salt and pepper.
8. Serve over a bed of pasta, topped with parmesean cheese. Spoon mussels and sauce over pasta.

In the absence of fresh mussels, you can buy these packaged ones at the Asian store.
I usually go to 99 Ranch Market.

These packaged mussels already come on a half shell. Look at that glorious orange contrasting against the green shell. I just marvel at nature's genius.

Finally, serve with garlic bread and keep the parmesean cheese handy.

Tip: I always buy the small 4-pack bottles of wine for cooking. That way you don't waste a whole big bottle. For this recipe, I used about 1/2 of the small bottle. -GG-