Personal Dork Assistant

Small Taste of Success

1. Slice up a shallot, couple of ribs of celery, and a clove of garlic. Sweat over medium-low heat in some olive oil. Toss in a few parsley stalks, too.
2. Once vegetables are soft, add half-cup of white wine and squeeze in half a lemon. Bring the liquid up to a simmer and then toss in a dozen mussels. Cover the pan.
3. Steam the mussels for a couple of minutes. Pick out any opened (i.e. done) mussels so they don't overcook, then replace cover and keep checking for done mussels once a minute or so.
4. After four or five minutes, any mussels that are still closed are probably dead and ain't never going to open, so off to the garbage they go, along with the cooked aromatics, leaving the reduced liquid.
5. Throw in a knob of butter and a splash of half-and-half (what I had, heavy cream might be better, but maybe not better for you) and reduce to saucy consistency. Salt and pepper, of course.
6. If one times everything perfectly, one would add in 90%-cooked pasta (I had spaghetti, linguine would probably work better) directly from the boiling pot and toss to coat. Put the mussels back in to warm. Add chopped parsley and a basil chiffonade for color.

Yeah, the mussels were better in Belgium, and I shouldn't have left the shellfish in the fridge for the extra day, but the seafood flavor really helps the pasta. Undersalted again, which is what happens when one doesn't cook consistently, but at least it's easy enough to fix. Now what do I do with the big bunches of parsley and basil (stupid grocery store) now that I've used my two stalks?