Weeknight Mussels Marinara Pasta

This recipe for weeknight mussels marinara pasta takes just a half hour from start to a delicious seafood supper on the table!

Welp, here we are in December, and even with a quieter holiday season, there still don’t seem to be enough hours in the day to do all the holiday stuff and still do all the regular stuff.

Like making a reasonably good and good for you dinner on a regular Thursday night – like a seafood pasta supper that is ready in about 30 minutes – while still making sure the house has at least 643,934 icicle lights in good working order at all times.

And that all members of the family have at least one rocking good holiday outfit that they are more or less happy to wear.

Which is why this easy peasy recipe for weeknight mussels marinara pasta has “weeknight” in the title.

It would be a great dinner party recipe – but there’s something so wonderful about walking in the kitchen at 6pm and putting a colorful, scrumptious supper on the table by 6:30ish.

Here’s how you buy and clean mussels!

Mussels are almost always in a nice mesh bag in the seafood section of your supermarket, and are one of the most inexpensive seafoods around.

You want to take a quick look at that bag to make sure you don’t see any broken shells, and if you are putting the bag in a plastic bag to prevent drips, don’t fully shut that bag. Mussels are live, and we want to keep them that way so they are nice and fresh.

When you get them home, pop them in the fridge until suppertime, and then rinse them well under cool water, tossing any that are cracked or open.

Some of them might have a fuzzy little clump along the shell line – that is called a beard, and most mussels these days come without them, but if you run into one, just pull it off. And now you are ready to roll!

Here’s how you make weeknight mussels marinara pasta!

Start a pot of pasta water and cook up some linguine while you make your delectable mussels.

While the pasta is cooking, put a splash of olive oil in a Dutch oven or deep skillet over medium heat.  Add a peeled and chopped sweet onion and 3 cloves of chopped garlic and sauté until the onion starts to soften, about 3 minutes.

Stir in 28 ounces of chopped canned tomatoes, a cup of white wine, a handful of fresh chopped parsley along with a pinch each of oregano, salt and pepper, cover and simmer for 10 minutes.

Add 2 pounds of scrubbed mussels, cover again and simmer until mussels open, about 5 minutes.  Toss any mussels that don’t open.

Divide pasta among bowls.  Scoop out the mussels with a slotted spoon – at this point you can decide if you are going to take them out of the shells or leave them in, it’s your choice! –  and divide them among bowls.

Swirl some butter into the sauce until it is melted, and then spoon the sauce generously over all, garnish with parsley and serve, putting out a big bowl for the shells.

Now you have lots of extra time to wrap presents, bake cookies, and drink that cup of red wine hot chocolate that you 100% deserve!

Print