This Bacon Tomato Mussel Pasta is a rich, aromatic, satisfying but not an overly heavy dish, which is perfect for the summer time.
Bacon Tomato Mussel Pasta
Well, hello, hello. I hope you are doing well, my friends. So do I. But I cannot imagine that it’s almost the mid of June. What?! I certainly need to hurry up as I still have a couple of recipes I made a month ago, and they are hardly the summer ideas. A spoiler alert: it’s crepes. Another spoiler alert: more crepes. And summer ideas? Thank you for asking – I am pleased with your attention. Don’t worry. I started my ice cream season a couple of weeks back which means you will see plenty of it. And my famous summer salads? You’ve got it too!
And while you are waiting for refreshing ice cream, I am happily presenting this Bacon Tomato Mussel Pasta. As you might remember, I celebrated my birthday a month ago, and I enjoyed this pasta around my birthday.
Well, you are probably confused a bit now because I made this Dulce de Leche Cheesecake with Irish Cream Caramel for my birthday. I also had that Lavender Medovik – Russian Honey Cake few days prior to my birthday. And now another birthday recipe? How many stomachs do you have Ben? – you might wonder. Sadly, I am not ALF (Do you remember that cute red fellow?) who happened to have eight stomachs.
The answer is simple indeed. I like to expand my birthday (if I have right kind of mood). For instance, I prefer to divide some activities/entertainments between two or even three days. You can fit all these things in one day, but that’s much more fun to stretch it. And some festive food? Yes, please!
Besides those two makes (Don’t worry. There was an unbearably long gap between making and gobbling them up. 3 days or probably even 3,5 days), I made flatbread pizza too on the weekend before my actual birthday. I am talking about this Smoked Salmon Naan Pizza and Smoked Cheese Salmon Naan Pizza. Not to mention a delicious Turkish&Mediterranean restaurant we enjoyed to celebrate it.
Too much food? I know! But I mistakenly bought a shirt one size larger, and I was too lazy to return it :) Just joking, though.
Oh man, I totally forgot to mention this Bacon Tomato Mussel Pasta which I was able to fit in my tight schedule. Please don’t ask me how! That’s was extremely hard, but I didn’t fail the mission. Also, I must have consumed my month carbs intake in just less than a week, but I don’t regret that because all that food was so delicious. And this Bacon Tomato Mussel Pasta with a delightful smoky flavor was one of the stars of that time.
What about you? Do you feel festive or moderate when it comes to your Birthdays?
Ingredients
- about 250 gr. dry pasta
- about 1 pound of fresh mussels
- 4-5 bacon strips, cut
- 2-3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 cup chopped can tomatoes (preferably with herbs)
- 1 tbsp butter or cream
- salt and black pepper, to tatse
- little pinch of hot pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
- fresh parsley, to garnish
Instructions
- First of all, start with sorting and discarding mussels which are broken or chipped. Note that mussels should be tightly closed. If some of them are open, tap the shell on their hard surface, and if it closes, it's safe to eat it.
- Once sorted out the good mussels, if they look nice and clean (cultivated mussels are normally clean), you don't need to soak them. Otherwise, soak the mussels in cold water for 15-20 minutes. Personally, although the mussels I had were clean, I still soaked them for 5 minutes before cleaning.
- Next, scrub the mussels under cold running water and remove the breads (kind of threads or fibers which are easy to remove by grasping and pulling). Drain the clean mussels.
- Now the mussels are ready to cook. You might choose the different way of cooking (cooking onions and garlic first then adding the mussels to the pan. I opted for this way as I wanted to remove most of hard shells after all, and I didn't want they would be covered in sauce).
- So add about 1 cup of water (The water should just lightly cover the bottom (like 0,5 thick) of the pan. We don't cook the mussels in water - we basically steam it).
- Add the mussels, cover, and cook over medium heat for 4-6 minutes or until they are open. The mussels which don't open, should be discarded as well.
- Remove the mussels and reserve the liquid. Remove most of the hard shells reserving some for decoration.
- Cook the pasta according to package recommendations, al dente. I also used some of the reserved water (about 1/2 cup) to infuse the dish even more. Drain reserving some of the liquid.
- In a meanwhile, in the same pan you steamed the mussels, place the bacon and garlic cook over medium heat, stirring, about 5 minutes.
- Add the tomatoes, season, and butter (or cream) and cook for 5 minutes.
- Add the mussels and cook a minute, just to warm through.
- Stir in the pasta in the sauce and let it stay one minute.
- Serve garnish with the parsley and the mussel shells.
- Enjoy!
Hi – I’m Ben, a blogger, recipe developer, and food photographer. I’m glad you’re here! I hope you will enjoy hundreds of delicious recipes and a pinch of havoc in the kitchen.
Expanding your birthday to include more delicious dishes makes perfect sense to me, Ben! Even with only one stomach!
Fantastic looking pasta – love the combo of bacon, tomatoes, mussels and, of course, pasta!! Can’t wait to see your crepe, salad and ice cream creations this summer!
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So much flavor in every bite! Such a lovely summer meal!
Birthdays are meant to be celebrated over a few days, and they should always involve lots of food! Sounds like you had a good one! As for this pasta dish, I don’t eat a lot of pasta anymore, but when I do, I love a seafood pasta and mussels are at the top of the list! Looks delicious Ben!
I don’t do much for my birthday other than give myself permission to eat extra sugar :). I’m glad that you make lots of food for yours since we all benefit from your delicious recipes! Like this one–what a lovely take on mussels! I can’t wait to see the crepe recipes you have in store. Have a great weekend!
I love mussel dishes Ben and I’m really loving this one as it’s largely tomato based with only a little cream. I’m usually one for making a mussel dish with a light white wine sauce, but I feel a change is in the air with my mussel recipes so I’m going to use this for the next one. Thanks! I probably eat more at Christmas than round about my birthday. So I tend to save up my indulgent time until then. Oh and there’s holidays of course. But they don’t count do they? Lol
I’m so glad you squeezed this pasta recipe in, Ben! It’s a classic for summer. I’ve only cooked mussels at home a handful of times, but they really are quite fun…and a good way to mix up the dinner routine. And bacon makes everything better! :-) As far as my birthday, I try to get in the festive mood but still keep it fairly normal. I mean I can’t eat an entire cake by myself…or can I? Haha!
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