Mussels with saffron pici

from Destination Flavour: People and Places(page 196) by Adam Liaw

This recipe taught me a new and better way to cook mussels. That is to blanch them in boiling salted water until they open and then transfer to the sauce. It results in all the mussels being perfectly cooked. I used the steaming basket of the pressure cooker so that I could remove the mussels quickly as they opened. I also blanched them in batches.

The sauce was very good:

EVOO, garlic, eschalots
cocktail tomatoes deseeded
white wine (I used a riesling)

Safron Pici

A lot of work, and I don’t thick it added anything special to the dish. 150g of flour, salt and saffron makes one very, very long pici at 5mm thickness. I don’t see the point in one long “noodle.” Working in smaller lengths would be easier to roll, and easier to eat. Further curling the noodle “into a spiral did” not seem to serve a purpose. The noodle stuck together and expanded!.

Topped with parsley and black pepper.