Mussels, bacon, mustard, cream — what’s not to like? Super easy, one pan, fast cooking and clean up. Add fries or a crusty baguette and it’s dinner. Serves 3:
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 3 slices of bacon cut into ¼” strips (lardons)
- 1 medium sized shallot, finely chopped
- 1 teaspoon finely chopped garlic
- 2 pounds mussels, beards removed, cleaned and scrubbed
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- Pepper
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 sprigs fresh thyme
- 1/4 cup white wine
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
- 2 tablespoons finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
Over medium heat, in a saucepan that has a lid and is big enough to hold the mussels, melt the butter. Add the bacon, shallots, and garlic and cook briefly, until the bacon starts to brown and the shallots soften.
Toss in the mussels, salt, pepper, bay leaf, thyme, white wine, and cream. Cover and bring to a boil. Cook for about 5 minutes, shaking to redistribute the mussels. Cook until all the mussels are opened.
Using a slotted spoon, transfer the mussels to a serving bowl. Keep warm. Continue cooking the sauce for a minute, remove bay leaf and the thyme. Stir in the mustard while heating, but do not boil.
Taste the sauce and add more salt and mustard if needed. Spoon equal portions of it over the mussels, sprinkle with parsley, serve and enjoy!
My verdict:
Mussels are so easy and so quick, I have to make them more often. These with the mustard, cream and bacon bits were great! We had some duck fat fries from Picard and homemade mayo to go with them—a perfect, quick dinner.
If you don’t have any open wine, water or more cream will be fine. And since the parsley is mostly for garnish, don’t worry about it.
