In Caroline Chambers’ latest cookbook, What To Cook When You Don’t Feel Like Cooking, she shares this recipe for mussels in a creamy, white wine sauce.
“There’s a restaurant in New York City called Flex Mussels that my friends and I used to frequent when I lived there in my twenties. It’s the coziest little spot, and the entire menu is—you guessed it—different variations of mussels. We’d get a couple different bowls of mussels, a ton of bread for dunking, and a crisp bottle of Sancerre and share everything. Now I love cooking mussels at home—it’s truly SO EASY, whether it’s a dinner party or a simple weeknight meal at home, and they make for such a fun vibe, with everyone opening the mussels and ripping off bread to dunk into the sauce. This is my all-time favorite super-simple mussels recipe, and in the Riffs I’ve also included a curry version that I love, too.
Ideally, you’ll buy your mussels scrubbed and debearded (if you buy them from a good fish market, ask them to do this!), but if not, place the mussels in a bowl and cover with cold water for
several minutes. This will make them spit out any grit. Then grab each mussel in one hand with a kitchen towel to keep it from slipping, and with another kitchen towel, clean it off. If you see a little hairy “beard” poking out of the shell, grab it with the kitchen towel and yank it out.”
recipe 
yields
Serves 4
4 ounces chopped pancetta
4 garlic cloves
1 bunch chives
4 pounds mussels, scrubbed and debearded (see Learn)
½ cup dry white wine (I like sauvignon blanc)
½ cup crème fraîche or heavy cream
Absolutely any really good bread, sliced
Unsalted butter
ingredients
steps
- Heat the broiler to high.
- Place the pancetta in a large, deep pot and cook over medium heat, stirring every minute or so, until crisp, 5 to 7 minutes.
- Meanwhile, mince the garlic and finely chop the chives (I like to use kitchen scissors for this). Measure and set aside 2 tablespoons of the chives. Add the remaining chives and all the garlic to the crispy pancetta in the pot and cook, stirring frequently, until the garlic is fragrant, another minute. Add the mussels and wine to the pot, cover, and increase the heat to medium-high. Cook for 3 minutes, stir, then cover again and cook until most of the mussels have opened, another 5 to 6 minutes. Discard any mussels that haven’t opened.
- Stir the crème fraîche into the broth. Sprinkle the reserved chives over the top.
- Meanwhile, place the bread on a baking sheet and add a little pat of butter to each slice. Broil for 1 to 3 minutes, until the bread is golden brown and the butter has melted. Do not walk away from the oven! Butter burns quickly!
- Ladle the mussels and broth into four bowls and serve with the toasty, buttery bread alongside for sopping up the deliciousness.
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Recipe adapted from
What to Cook When You Don't Feel Like Cooking by Caroline Chambers © 2024. Published by Union Square & Co. Photos © Eva Kolenko.
