I've been reading "Heat" by Bill Buford, and decided I had to have another try at pasta with shellfish, and I decided on mussels because I like them. So I bought some mussels, whacked up a couple of cloves of garlic and an equal amount of shallot, chopped a couple of smallish Roma tomatoes, sliced some green onion on the diagonal, and set to work.
I thought I had linguine, but I didn't, only fettucine in the cupboard. Oh, well. Fettucine in the pot. Wait a while, it takes longer than linguine. Heat olive oil in the pan until it's wandering all over the place and fumes begin to rise. Scrape in the shallot, then the garlic, OMIGOD it's cooking fast! Splash some of the fettucine water in it (thanks, Bill!) and a tablespoon of butter.
Dang. The fettucine is still several minutes away. Turn down the heat for a minute or so. Ok, turn the heat back up and toss the mussels in. Stir them around. Hot damn! They're opening just like the ought to! Look at the fettucine. Dammit!! Oh, well, gotta keep going. Add the green onion and toss it around some more, making a mess out of the cooktop. Add the tomatoes. More mess.
Ok, the fettucine is al dente if you have tough teeth. Drain it (sorry, Bill!) and dump it in and stir things around some more - the pan is too full for my meager tossing lack-of-skill. Ooh! The sauce has just come together!
Plate and serve. Good!!
I was going to put a pinch of red pepper flakes in, but I forgot. No big deal; it might have been better, but it wouldn't have been a whole lot better. Also, the doggone fettucine took longer and longer and I ended up overcooking the tomatoes slightly - by 30 seconds or so. They still held together, but they had become very soft.
It was another step in education, and I'm glad I got that book for Christmas.
John
