Freshness @ Home - Mussells in white wine tomato sauce pasta

One of the things I've grown to really love here in the Philippines is the weekly outting to the Palengke (Markets). It's nothing like the Sydney Fish Markets back home, but in my opinion this is even better and more importantly where you find fresh seafood.

I saw these mussels in live tanks and I haven't eaten them for a while, mind you I'm conscious of where they got these mussels from - turns out they are from Cavite, where I lived as a child. From what I remember I knew it had to be good so I purchased them!

Ingredients serves 4  
1kg of mussells (large)
2 cloves garlic (chopped)
1 lemon rind (minced) of one lemon and juice
4 tomatoes (roughly chopped)
1 canned tomatoes
1 cup of dry white wine
1tbs of caster sugar
1 pkt of pasta (Angel hair pasta is best but any pasta will do)
salt and pepper to taste

Method

1. Mussels easily spoil once you remove the beards on them so make sure you do this just before you cook them and place them in a bowl of cold water
2. In a medium sized pot, place olive oil add garlic, onion, tomatoes and saute until onions are clear
3. Turn the heat down and add the white wine, canned tomatoes and caster sugar and mussels and stir around (mussels cook fast so allow 10 mins)
4. Then add salt and pepper to taste - set aside
5. Cook pasta in a separate saucepan (as per normal), drain and then in a bowl take some of the sauce from the mussels and mix through the pasta
6. Then serve on a plate and more sauce as you wish