Pasta with mussels and tomatoes is a traditional Italian seafood pasta recipe. Spaghetti is a classic pasta selection for this seafood pasta sauce. As far as seafood spaghetti recipes go, this one is pretty simple as well!
Pasta with Mussels is popular in Italy during the Christmas holidays—or really anytime that fresh seafood can be found! Mussels are much more economical than many other types of shellfish and seafood (such as clams). This makes them the perfect choice for feeding a crowd on a special occasion!
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Learn how to make Pasta with Mussels in this video recipe, filmed in Italy:
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Making Italian Pasta with Mussels
This is a really simple Italian pasta recipe that you can whip up in minutes! Unlike clams, mussels don’t pull much sand into their shells. For this reason, it isn’t necessary to soak them for hours before cooking them, as we typically do for clams.
However, you will want to give fresh mussels a quick cleaning and remove any ‘beards’ that remain before steaming them.
How to Prepare Mussels for Pasta
How to Clean Mussels and Check for Signs of Life
- Visible cracks in shell? Discard.
- Is shell open and does not close after you tap it? Discard.
- Scrape off any loose dirt from the mussel shell with a paring knife.
- Rinse the outside of the mussels.
Discard any mussels that have visible cracks. If the shell of a mussel is open (outside of water), give it a light tap on a bowl or surface. Does the shell immediately close? Then the mussel is still alive and safe to eat.
If the shell does not close after you tap, discard it. These mussels are not safe to eat. It may sound sadistic, but you need to cook shellfish when they are alive. If the shell is already open out of water, the mussel is likely dead.
Use a paring knife to scrape any loose dirt or barnacles off of the mussels. Then, rinse the outside of the mussels.
Remove the Mussel ‘Beard’
You’ll also want to remove the ‘beard’ from the mussels—the hairy looking tail that sticks out of the shell.
To remove the beard: Hold each mussel narrow side up. Grab the beard and pull down and away from the narrow side of the mussel until it pops off. Discard all beards.
How to Steam Mussels
The key ingredient to our delicious Pasta with Mussels is fresh shellfish broth —and the mussel meat of course.
Steaming mussels is very easy and a key step to many classic Italian food recipes.
It usually starts with a bit of olive oil in the bottom of a skillet. We create a soffritto with garlic and herbs (in this case flat leaf Italian parsley). Our bed of aromatics ready, we add the fresh mussels, followed by a splash of white wine to de-glaze the pan.
Then, we simply cover the mussels and cook them over medium heat until all or most shells have opened. Discard any mussels whose shells have not opened after steaming. They aren’t safe to eat.
At this point, you need to strain the lovely broth that the steamed mussels produced—to remove any sand.
Then, remove the meat from most of the mussel shells and put the meat in the strained broth until you are ready to use them. This keeps the mussel meat moist and prevents it from drying out!
We always leave a few steamed mussels in their shells for decorating our Pasta with Mussels during plating.
Preparing the Tomatoes and Sauce
For this Pasta with Mussels recipe, we are just using fresh grape or cherry tomatoes. Slice the tomatoes in half (lengthwise).
In a skillet, we make another soffritto: with olive oil, minced parsley and garlic and a bit of chili pepper. After we’ve briefly sautéed the herbs, we toss in the sliced tomatoes and two ladles of that delicious mussel broth we just made.
After simmering the tomatoes for about 5 minutes, we add another ladle of broth and the clam meat!
Finish Cooking the Pasta in the Pan!
While our seafood pasta sauce simmers, we partially cook our spaghetti in a pot of unsalted boiling water. Cook the spaghetti for just half of the time required for al dente pasta on the package. Again:
- DO NOT SALT the pasta water – Normally pasta water is salted, but when we are making a sauce with salty seafood broth we don’t want to add additional salt at this time!
- COOK THE PASTA HALFWAY – Cook the pasta just half of the time called for on the package to cook the pasta to al dente.
- SAVE the pasta water.
Transfer the partially cooked pasta to the seafood sauce in the skillet, along with two more ladles of hot pasta water. Finish cooking the pasta to al dente in the pan with the delicious seafood sauce!
Add the mussels in the shell to the finished dish and top with some more minced fresh parsley. Buon appetito!
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Italian Pasta with Mussels and Tomato Recipe
Equipment
- 1 Large Pot for partially cooking the pasta
- 1 large skillet or sauce pan for making the sauce and finishing the pasta
Ingredients
- 3 lbs mussels cleaned, rinsed and beards removed
- 14 oz grape or cherry tomatoes sliced in half (lengthwise)
- 3 cloves fresh garlic ⅔ minced, rest whole
- 2 handfuls flat leaf Italian parsley ½ chopped, ½ minced
- ½ fresh red chili pepper or to taste
- ¼ cup dry white wine Pinot Grigio for instance
- 7 tbsp olive oil or, as needed
- fine salt to taste
- 11 oz spaghetti
Instructions
Prepare the Mussels
- Discard any mussels that are already open or have visible cracks. They are not safe to eat.Use a paring knife to scrape any loose dirt or barnacles off of the mussels. Rinse the outside of the mussels.3 lbs mussels
- Remove the ‘beard’ from the mussels—the hairy looking tail that sticks out of the shell. To remove the beard: Hold each mussel narrow side up. Grab the beard and pull down and away from the narrow side of the mussel until it pops off.
Steam the Mussels
- Cover the bottom of a large pan or skillet with olive oil. Bring the skillet to medium heat. Add ½ the parsley (roughly chopped) and one whole clove of garlic.2 handfuls flat leaf Italian parsley, 7 tbsp olive oil, 3 cloves fresh garlic
- Sauté the garlic and herbs in the oil for about a minute. Then add the mussels and white wine to the skillet.¼ cup dry white wine
- Cover and steam the mussels over medium heat until most of the shells have opened. This usually takes just a few minutes.
- Discard any mussels that have not opened. Save a few steamed mussels for decoration. Remove the mussel meat from the rest of the shells and transfer them to a bowl.
- Strain the broth that the mussels have produced while steaming. Add that broth to the mussel meat to prevent the mussels from drying out. Set the mussels aside.
Prepare the Pasta Sauce
- Slice all of the grape tomatoes into quarters. Mince another handful of parsley with 2 cloves of garlic.14 oz grape or cherry tomatoes
- Cover the bottom of a large pan or skillet with olive oil. Bring the skillet to medium heat. Add the chili pepper, the minced garlic and the minced parsley to the hot oil.½ fresh red chili pepper
- After about 10 seconds, add the tomatoes as well. Give everything a stir. Then add 2 ladles of the mussel broth that you’ve saved.
- Cover and cook the sauce over medium-low heat for about 5 minutes. Then add all of the mussel meat and another ladle of mussel broth. Continue to cook the sauce uncovered.In the meantime…
Cook the Pasta
- Add the spaghetti to boiling water and cook it for HALF of the time recommended on the package for al dente pasta. Do not salt the pasta water!11 oz spaghetti
Finish the Pasta
- Remove the chili pepper from the sauce and discard it.
- Add the partially-cooked spaghetti to the skillet with the sauce along with 2 more ladles of hot pasta water. Mix to combine.Finish cooking the spaghetti in the sauce over medium heat until the pasta is cooked to al dente.
- The sauce should thicken naturally from the starch coming from the spaghetti and hot pasta water.
- At the end of the cooking time, add the mussels that you’ve saved for decoration back into the pasta to reheat them. Salt to taste (you may not need it).Top the finished pasta with a sprinkle of fresh minced parsley and serve!fine salt
- Buon Appetito!
Watch the video recipe for this Spaghetti with Mussels and Tomatoes on YouTube: https://youtu.be/yHDSnFAaHuM