Basil Mussel Sausage Aglio e Olio

The basis of this dish is extra virgin olive oil and garlic. Whenever I’ve made this dish in the past, I would thinly slice garlic cloves to get the desired quantity (which is more than most recipes call for since I like garlic). At my local Korean market, minced garlic (mixed with a small amount of water) is available in containers up to 5 lbs. (2.3 kg), which is a lot of minced garlic! So I bought a 1 lb. (454 g.) container and used a small portion of that garlic for this recipe together with frozen mussel meat. Most recipes use fresh mussels in the shell to make this dish and the broth from cooking the mussels become part of the sauce. So to emulate that process, I thawed the mussels in white wine and then used the mussel infused wine in the sauce.

You can save some time by cooking the pasta while the other ingredients are prepared. I never do this since prep time always seems to exceed pasta cooking time for me, but for those of you that are speedier, you can use parallel processing to make this dish. Finally I used a wok to make this dish (which certainly isn’t a traditional Italian method!), but you can certainly use a pan.

Enjoy!

Ingredients

1 lb.	500 g.	Mussel meat, beards removed
1 cup	250 ml.	White wine, used to soak the mussels and later in the sauce
1 lb.	500 g.	Italian sausage
2 Tbs.	30 ml.	Sun dried tomatoes, julienned
¼ cup	60 ml.	Fresh basil leaves
1 lb.	500 g.	Fettuccine, linguine, spaghetti, or other pasta
		Salt to taste
		Pepper to taste
		Water to cook the pasta
		Olive oil for cooking

 

Sauce Ingredients

4 Tbs.	60 ml.	Minced garlic
1 Tbs.	15 ml.	Red pepper flakes
½ cup	125 ml.	Extra virgin olive oil
½ cup	125 ml.	Pasta cooking water
		Wine used to soak the mussels

 

Equipment

8 qt.	7.5 L.	Pot
14 in.	35.5 cm.	Wok or pan

 

Preparation Instructions

1. Thaw the mussels in white wine overnight in the refrigerator. Remove the mussels from the refrigerator at least one hour before cooking. Remove the mussels from the wine and remove the beards. Reserve the wine for later use in the sauce.
2. Remove the casings from the Italian sausage.
3. Wash and remove the leaves from the fresh basil.
4. Julienne the sun dried tomatoes and place them into a small bowl.
5. Place the minced garlic and red pepper flakes into a small bowl.
6. Put the extra virgin olive oil for the sauce into a bowl.

Cooking Instructions

1. Cook the pasta according to the instructions on the package and until the pasta are al dente. Reserve some of the pasta cooking water, drain the noodles, and set aside.
2. Heat a wok or pan over medium- to medium-high heat before adding olive oil. Add the Italian sausage to the wok, breaking up the sausage while browning them. Set the sausage aside in a bowl.
3. Reheat the wok or pan over medium- to medium-high heat before adding olive oil. Add the mussels to the wok and quickly cook them until they change color. Set the mussels aside in the bowl with the sausage.
4. Reheat the wok or pan over medium- to medium-high heat before adding the extra virgin olive oil and then the bowl containing the minced garlic and red pepper flakes to make the sauce. Stir the contents in the olive oil until the garlic browns. Add the sun dried tomatoes to the sauce and mix the ingredients together.
5. Add the pasta to the wok or pan, then the mussel infused wine, and mix the ingredients together. If the pasta seems dry, add some of the reserved pasta water. Taste one of the noodles, and add salt and pepper to taste as necessary.
6. Add the basil and the bowl containing the sausage and mussels to the wok. Mix all the ingredients together before putting the cooked ingredients into a serving dish.