Mejillones a la marinera

Today is my first day embarking on our new Mediterranean diet. In fact, my family doesn’t even know about this yet! Maybe they’ll figure it out and maybe they won’t, but they’ll be happy either way.

Apparently, in this part of Texas the prices for “summer” vegetables, such as peppers and tomatoes, are much better in October than in the summer. Finally! I’ve been quite aghast at the prices of such things during the months we’ve been here, but I guess I just needed a little more patience.

I’m going to starting out by making some Mejillones a la marinera for supper tonight. Mejillones is Spanish for mussels, and I bought about two pounds of live ones today at HEB. In my opinion, there is nothing better than eating them “seaman style,” that is, with a tomato sauce.

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs mussels
• 1 lb tomatoes
• 1 onion
• 2-3 cloves of garlic
• olive oil
• parsley
• white wine
• 1 tsp. cornstarch or arrowroot powder (optional)
• bay leaf

Steps:

Clean the mussels, removing the beards and rinsing them well. If they are particularly dirty they may need a scrub. Toss any mussels that have cracked or broken shells.

Steam them by placing them in a pot with just a little bit of water at the bottom. Cover and cook on low heat for a few minutes until most of the mussels are open, then remove from heat. Drain, but reserve the water for the sauce.

In the meantime, dice the onion and garlic and saute in a pan with a bit of olive oil for about 8 minutes. Add the diced* tomatoes and cook for 5 or 10 more minutes.

At this point, add about a cup of wine and a cup of the reserved mussel water. If you think you’ll want a slightly thick sauce, add a bit of cornstarch or arrowroot powder dissolved in mussel water. Throw in a bay leaf and cook for a few more minutes.

Add the mussel shells that have meat attached to them to the pan. Allow it cook just a couple of minutes, sprinkle chopped parsley on top, and serve with bread and a green salad.

*You can peel and seed the tomatoes or, if you prefer, grate them . I’m too lazy to do either. I just stick the whole thing in the food processor, chop it up, and throw it in, or, if it’s going to cook for a long time, I toss the whole washed tomato into the pan.