members recipes

A fabulous and quite light antipesto

Ingredients
1 kg mussels, scrubbed and cleaned, and with bad ones thrown away
60 ml dry white wine
60 ml olive oil
1 medium leek, chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely minced
20 g breadcrumbs
30 g finely grated Parmesan
20 g flatleaf parsley, finely chopped
Cayenne pepper, to taste
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

Method
Gently sweat the leek in the olive oil until almost soft. Add the garlic. Cook for a couple more minutes.

Mix together the (slightly cooled) leek preparation, breadcrumbs, Parmesan, parsley, Cayenne pepper, and salt and pepper.

Meanwhile, place the mussels in a pan together with the wine. Cook under a lid over a high heat until all the shells are almost completely open (3-5 minutes). (Reserve (freeze) the stock for future soups and sauces). Remove each mussel from their shell. Discard half the shells (the ones that have the muscle attachment), and keep the rest. Place one mussel in each shell, and sprinkle with the leek/breadcrumb/Parmesan mixture.

Place under a preheated grill for a couple of minutes, until golden.

Serve on their own with lemon wedges as an antipasto with crusty bread and possibly some rouille or aïoli, or as a more complete starter with crisp salad leaves, citrus marinated fennel, and rouille.