Ingredients:
- Mussels 4 lbs (1.8 kg) - to be cleaned
- Canned tomatoes 2 ½ cups (600 g) - chopped
- Garlic 2 cloves
- White wine ½ glass
- Fresh chili pepper to taste
- Extra virgin olive oil 4 tbsp
- Parsley 1 sprig - chopped
- Salt 1 pinch
- To prepare mussels in spicy tomato sauce, start by cleaning the mussels. Eliminate those that are broken or are already open. With a knife remove any barnacles, then pull out the byssus. With a clean scourer carefully rub the shells one by one, to remove all impurities. Finally rinse them several times. Set them aside.
- Finely chop one clove of peeled garlic and the chili pepper. In a large saucepan, brown them in 2 tbsp of oil, then add the chopped tomatoes and a pinch of salt (very little is enough, since the mussels are already salty). Cover with a lid and let it simmer for about 10 minutes.
- In the meantime, in another saucepan put 2 tbsp of oil and the other clove of peeled garlic (this time leave it whole); let it brown briefly, then add the mussels and, as soon as they start to fry, raise the heat and add the white wine. Let it evaporate for 30 seconds, then cover the pot with a lid that seals it perfectly and let it cook for about 5 minutes, until the mussels have opened.
- Turn off the heat, drain the mussels with a slotted spoon and filter the cooking liquid by passing it through a sieve.
- Put the liquid from the mussels into the saucepan with the tomato sauce, mix well and cook for another 10 minutes on a low flame with the saucepan uncovered.
- When the sauce is a little thicker, add the mussels and let them flavor for a minute; then turn off the heat and garnish with chopped parsley.
- Serve the mussels with spicy tomato sauce immediately, accompanied by slices of toasted bread if you like.