Rice with potatoes and mussels is a dish with roots in Apulia’s peasant tradition, in which land and sea come together to delight even the most demanding palates.
The women in Apulian peasant families would spread any vegetables they had in the house at the bottom of a pan and cover them with rice and potatoes, to make a hearty meal for when the starving men returned from the fields. Once the recipe reached coastal areas, mussels were added to create this traditional delicacy, which may be eaten as a first course or as a stand-alone meal.
Ingredients for 6 people
Carnaroli rice, 300 g
Yellow-flesh potatoes, 500 g
Mussels, 500 g Bread crumbs, 50 g
Water, 300 ml
Garlic, 1 clove
Minced parsley, 50 g
Extra virgin olive oil, to taste
Pecorino Romano cheese, to taste
Salt, to taste
Pepper, to taste
Preparation
Thoroughly clean the mussels, removing the beard and, with a scrubbing cloth, any impurities that may be present on the shell. Open the mussels with a small knife, from the top all the way around the shell. As you do this, collect the liquid that escapes the mussels into a bowl, filtering it with a fine-mesh colander. Gather the whole mollusc onto one valve (i.e. half of the shell) and discard the empty valve. To make the breading, mix the breadcrumbs with the finely minced garlic, half of the minced parsley and extra virgin olive oil. Peel the potatoes, cut them into thin slices, and lay them on the bottom of a pre-oiled baking dish, then add salt, pepper and a bit of parsley. Now add a layer of mussels, with the mollusc facing upwards, onto the layer of potatoes. Dust with Pecorino and add rice. Add the mussel liquid to the water making sure it is properly salted, then gently pour part of the liquid into the baking dish. Hint: when cooking seafood, it’s best to be cautious with salt, but you also don’t want the dish to be insipid. Therefore, it is advisable to taste the ingredients during preparation, and adjust with salt if necessary. Repeat with a second layer of potatoes, mussels and rice, sprinkling with parsley, salt and pepper. Add a layer of breading at the top. From one side of the baking dish, add the remaining liquid so that it reaches just below the breading. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil, place the dish on the lowest part of the oven, and bake at 180° for about 60 minutes (in a conventional oven). When the dish is ready, the breading should be nicely browned.
Useful tips for best results
The secret to making an excellent rice with potatoes and mussels is to accurately lay out all the ingredients onto the pan, so that the rice absorbs the most flavour. To this end, be sure to not make the rice layers too thick: this could make the rice taste bland and also prevent the ingredients from properly cooking. To make the dish even more savoury, you can replace water with fish stock or a broth made from mussels, shrimp and other seafood. Keep in mind that all ingredients must be prepared raw, including the mussels, which you should open yourself (pre-cooked mussels would turn out chewy).
Buon appetito!
