Mussels in Pesto Sauce Recipe

Serves 1
Calories: 350 kcal

Yesterday I was lucky enough to be in Sainsbury’s shopping for Paella ingredients when I came across 6 small bags of mussels for 1p each!! Needless to say, we snapped them up – used a few mussels in the paella recipe and were left with a whole bunch of live mussels! Since no-one else was that fussed it fell to me to find a recipe and try and get through them. 

First things first, before digging into your mussels in pesto sauce recipe, it is absolutely essential that you check that your mussels are alive – dead and decaying mussels will make you very very ill indeed! See the bottom of the page for details.

Ingredients for Mussels in Pesto Sauce

Ingredients used in this mussels in pesto sauce recipe are:-

• 500g Mussels (in their shells)
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1 shallot/ small onion (finely chopped)
• 125ml white wine
• 2 tsp pesto
• 2 tsp crème fraîche
• Serve with crusty bread

Mussels in Pesto Sauce Method

1. Check that your mussels are still alive (see below)
2. Gently saute your finely chopped onion in olive oil over a low – medium heat until soft
3. Add wine, and simmer for 2 minutes
4. Add your mussels, cover and cook for a further 5 minutes.
5. Add pesto and crème fraîche and stir into sauce
6. Check your cooked mussels, if there are any that have not opened, discard – these are bad.
7. Serve in a large bowl with crusty bread – pour the remaining sauce over the top.

Cooking Tips

How to check that a mussel is alive

1. If the mussel is open, tap it a few times – if it’s alive, it will react and close up, if this happens the mussel is okay to cook and eat.
2. If the mussel is wide open, and won’t close right up after a good tapping then discard it.
3. After cooking the mussels, if you find a closed mussel – discard it.

Preparing Mussels

1. Make sure the mussel is alive (see above) – take no chances in this respect, if in doubt throw it away.
2. Remove the beard – this is the bit that looks like rope hanging out the side. The mussel uses this to cling to ropes etc. It should just pull off with a bit of a twist.
3. Give the mussels a good scrubbing to get the all the rubbish off.