Mussels with Pancetta and Vermouth Recipe from Good Fish Cookbook

Jul 3, 2011
Larry Ervin

Mussels with Pancetta and Vermouth - Clare Barboza, by permission Sasquatch Books

"We humans eat too much fish." That statement may surprise you, coming from Becky Selengut, chef-author of Good Fish - Sustainable Seafood Cookbook

The Monterey Bay Aquarium tells us that 75 percent of the world's fisheries are either fully exploited, overexploited or have collapsed. But “guilt makes bad gravy”, Becky Selengut quotes a friend. Her stated intention with Good Fish is to simplify the complicated issues involved so we can make better, more sustainable seafood choices.

Two issues when you choose fish/seafood:

Fresh vs. Frozen (sometimes frozen is best!)
Wild vs. Farmed (both can have problems—ask your fishmonger where and how the wild fish was caught.)

Good Fish gives us 75 recipes, 5 each for 15 types of sustainable seafood, organized from simplest to most challenging. Many recipes have stunning, full page color photographs by Clare Barboza. Selengut tells us the best season for each species, how they are harvested (or raised), buying tips including questions we should ask our fishmonger.

Each recipe has wine or booze pairings by sommelier April Pogue, who is also Selengut’s wife.

Where a technique in the book is easier to show than tell, Selengut has recorded 15 videos on her website. She demonstrates, for instance, how to debeard and clean mussels, a video she refers readers to from the recipe below.

Mussels with Pancetta and Vermouth Recipe

Yield: 6-8 servings as a starter

Ingredients:

2 pounds mussels
¼ cup dry white vermouth or dry white wine
2 ounces pancetta, prosciutto or bacon
¼ cup minced shallots
Zest of 1 lemon (about 2 tsp), plus lemon juice for finishing
¼ tsp cayenne
2 Tbsp mayonnaise
2 Tbsp minced fresh Italian parsley
¼ cup panko or bread crumbs
1 ounces (1/2 cup) grated Manchego cheese
Rock salt, for serving

Method:

Scrub and debeard the mussels.‡
Preheat the broiler. Place a rack in the lower middle position of the oven.
In a saucepan over high heat, add the mussels and vermouth. Cook, covered, just until the mussels pop open, 2 to 3 minutes. Remove them with tongs as they open. (Any mussels that do not open can be pried open using and oyster shucker or discarded [see note].) Strain the mussel liquor and reserve. Let the mussels cool.
In a wide saucepan over medium heat, cook the pancetta until it releases some of its fat, about 5 minutes.
Add the shallots and cook, stirring occasionally, until they are soft, about 5 minutes.
Add the reserved mussel liquor, lemon zest, and cayenne and deglaze the pan, letting the juices evaporate completely. Transfer the mixture to a bowl and fold in the mayonnaise.
In a separate bowl, mix the parsley and panko.
When the mussels are cool, twist off the top shells and discard. Place the mussels in their bottom shells and a sheet pan. Top each mussel with a small amount of the pancetta-shallot mixture and then coat the top with some of the parsley-panko mixture. Finish each with a sprinkle of Manchego.
Broil the mussels until the topping is light brown, 1 to 2 minutes. Don’t overcook them or they will get tough.
Serve on a bed of rock salt with a squeeze of lemon juice, if desired.

Pairing:

A Chablis, such as Albert Bichot Chablis Domain Long-Depaquit 2008, Burgundy, France, or a rosé.

Note on mussels that don’t open:

Selengut says “When cooking mussels, you may notice a few don’t open. You may have heard that eating these mussels will make you sick, but the truth is that they are either full of mud or just not cooked enough. Bivalves open when dead—it’s more important to discard any that gape open and won’t close before you cook them as these are the ones that could make you sick.