Busara is a very common way for preparing seafood in Italy. It is an excellent, simple and delicious recipe. No matter which seafood you choose the main ingredients remains always the same. This way of preparation gives plenty of delicious juice, sometimes even more tempting than the main ingredient itself. There is an expression in Italy ”Fare la scarpetta” which means to mop up the sauce from a plate with a piece of bread. My husband always says that this is the best way to eat mussels alla busara.
To prepare Fusilli with mussels alla busara we need…
Ingredients:
- 1 kg mussels, washed & beards removed
- 1 cup parsley, chopped
- 1 cup olive oil
- 6 fresh cloves garlic, chopped
- ⅓ cup bread crumbs
- ½ glass of white wine
- Salt & pepper, to taste
- 500 g tomato sauce
- Pasta Fusilli, 400 g
Directions:
Clean (tear off beards) and wash mussels. Place a large and deep saucepan over low heat. Add olive oil, garlic and chopped parsley (leave a small portion for plate decoration at the end) and cook until lightly golden. Add the breadcrumbs and stir quickly before tossing in the cleaned mussels followed by the white wine. Stirr till the wine evaporates.
Put a lid on the saucepan and shake it vigorously for a few seconds to coat the mussels in the sauce. Shake the saucepan frequently for a few minutes. The mussels will be done when they’ve all opened. The closed ones throw away. Tumble onto a platter and serve with crusty bread. Very delicious!
Or you can prepare the sauce for pasta. In that case add in the saucepan tomato sauce and stirr the sauce. Salt it to taste. Leave it on heat for approx. 30 minutes more. Stirr from time to time and add water if needed. In the meantime cook the pasta Fusilli in salted boiled water till ”al dente”. Check the instructions on the packaging fort the exact timing. Put the mussel sauce on pasta, stirr and serve it immediately so the pasta will not be overcooked. On top of the plate put whole mussels and decorate with chopped parsley. Serve with a glass of good white wine.
I used in this recipe:
Extra virgin olive Oil Tomato sauce
