La Cucina Italiana - De Italiaanse Keuken - The Italian Kitchen

They are, in fact, an Italian version of that near universal dish: steamed mussels.

I like the conviviality of this dish—serve your large pot of mussels in the center of the table and let each diner serve themselves a nice portion of mussels and liquor. You can eat it by grabbing a mussel shell gingerly with your left hand while removing the mussel with a fork or a spoon. (I prefer a spoon, because you can immerse the mussel in some of the sauce before you eat it for maximum flavor.) Make sure to have an extra bowl at table for discarded shells.

Ingredients (serves 4 as a secondo, 6 as an antipasto)

To pre-cook the mussels:
1 bag of mussels
A splash of white wine (say about 1/2 cup)

For the soffritto and final cooking:
2-3 cloves of garlic, chopped
1-2 peperoncini, chopped and seeds removed(or a dash of red pepper flakes)
A handful of fresh parsley, chopped
Olive oil
Salt, q.b.

 

Click for directions

Via Mariano Pallottini

In Ancona the moscioli are non-breeding mussels spontaneously reproducing on tracts of reefs in Portonovo of Ancona area, and exactly on the tract of coast that goes from Pietralacroce until the beach of Sassi Neri (black Stones) at Sirolo. They are the wild equivalent of breeding mussels and they settle the underwater side of reefs typical of this coast area; they have rich and strong sea taste and they have a firmer body than breeding mussels.

 

Moscioli at marinara way
Quantities for 4 / 5 people:
1 kg of very fresh moscioli – a handful of parsley – some olive oil – one lemon – a bit of pepper.

Preparation (1 hour)

Washing accurately mussels under running water and brushing their valves (shells of moscioli); using a little sharp knife, opening raw mussels by hands without warming them up (it’s a rather demanding job, if you are not used to; but it gives as result a unique taste if compared to opening by pot cooking method)... click

Via Mariano Pallottini