Gary cooks

Mulroy Bay Mussels Fra Diavolo with Spaghetti & Herbs

Preparation time:

30 mins

Cooking time:

1 hour

Serves:

4 people

Ireland is blessed with beautiful clean waters and some fantastic mussel growers. My heart lies in Donegal though so I always buy my mussels from Donegal and Mulroy Bay. Mussels take well to spices, this is the reason I’ve gone with a Fra Diavolo sauce but try them sometimes with a coconut green curry, you won’t regret it. Of course, the classical French way of cooking them in wine and lemon juice with a little parsley and garlic is fantastic too. It’s always nice to be a little more adventurous though and, I find by adding the spaghetti you take them from a snack/starter to becoming the main meal.

Ingredients
Pasta:
- 500g 00 flour
- 350g egg yolk
- 15g salt
- 100g water
- 50g olive oil
Mussels:
- 4 dozen mussels (cleaned and de-bearded)
- 100ml white wine
- 2 handfuls chopped flat leaf parsley
Fra Diavolo Sauce:
- Drizzle of vegetable oil
- Fine sea salt and ground white pepper to taste
- 3 cloves garlic, crushed
- 1 small white onion, chopped
- 1 red chilli, finely sliced
- 2 pinches dried red chilli flakes
- 70ml white wine
- juice of 1 lemon
- 2 x 400g tins chopped tomatoes (See Tip 2 in Chef's notes)
- 2 tsp tomato puree
- Handful of flat parsley, chopped
Method
For the Pasta Dough:
- Add the flour and salt to the mixing bowl and turn on for 30 seconds.
- Add in the egg yolk and mix in.
- Now mix the water and olive oil together then pour in slowly and continue mixing until a dough ball is made. You may not need all the liquid.
For the Spaghetti:
- Cut 2 x 200g pieces of pasta dough.
- Dust the 1 piece well and roll into a small rectangular piece. Attach the lasagna attachment to the Chef Titanium and pass the dough through. Run it through setting 0 first, then 1 followed by 2 and 3. Fold the dough over on itself and repeat.
- Now add the spaghetti cutter attachment and run the dough through it.
- Repeat with the second 200g of pasta dough.
- When ready, bring a pot of salted water to the boil and cook the pasta until al-dente. Drain and set aside.
For the Fra Diavolo Sauce:
- Heat a heavy based pot and add the oil followed by the garlic and onions, season well and sweat (See Tip 3 in Chef's notes). Now add in the chilli and the chilli flakes as well as the juice of the lemon and wine and reduce by half.
- Add in the chopped tomatoes and bring to the boil, reduce the heat to a simmer and leave to cook and reduce until thickened.
- Whisk in the tomato puree and chopped parsley & adjust seasoning.
- Place the sauce into the food processor and process until smooth but not too smooth, set aside.
For the Mussels:
- Place them into a pot with the white wine and cover.
- Once the mussels start to open pour in the Fra Diavolo sauce and bring to the boil.
- Now add in the cooked pasta and the flat leaf parsley and toss well in the sauce.
- To serve, divide between 4 large bowls.
Chef's notes
- 1. You can make the Fra Diavolo sauce up to three days ahead of time.
  In fact, the more time it has the better it will taste.
- 2. Chopped tomatoes are good but if you have fresh tomatoes that have burst or over ripened, use them.
- 3. To sweat onions or garlic simply means to sauté without colour.