Home

Paccheri with Potato Cream and Mussels

17/11/2023

I can provide you with a recipe to prepare delicious Paccheri with Potato Cream and Mussels. This dish is a perfect encounter between land and sea, typical of Mediterranean cuisine.

Ingredients

  • 320 g of paccheri
  • 400 g of mussels
  • 2 medium potatoes
  • 1 clove of garlic
  • Chopped parsley to taste
  • Extra virgin olive oil to taste
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • 1 glass of white wine (for deglazing the mussels)

Preparation

  1. Start by cleaning the mussels well: remove their beards and rinse them under fresh running water. Once cleaned, put them in a pan with a clove of garlic and let them open over high heat with a lid. Use the white wine to deglaze them.
  2. Shell the mussels (leaving some with the shell for the final decoration) and filter their cooking liquid through a fine-mesh strainer to remove any residue or sand. Set aside both the mussels and their filtered liquid.
  3. Peel the potatoes and cut them into cubes. Boil them in lightly salted water until they are soft.
  4. Drain them and blend them with a bit of the cooking water until you get a smooth cream. If necessary, adjust with salt and pepper.
  5. In a large pan, heat a drizzle of oil with a clove of garlic, then add the potato cream and the mussel liquid. Cook over low heat for a few minutes to flavor the cream.
  6. Meanwhile, cook the paccheri in plenty of salted water, drain them al dente, and transfer them to the pan with the potato cream.
  7. Add the shelled mussels to the pasta, mix gently to flavor and cook together for another minute or two.
  8. Serve the paccheri hot, garnished with some chopped parsley and the mussels you had left in the shell.

Curiosity

Paccheri is a pasta shape that is greatly loved in Neapolitan cuisine. They are large pasta tubes that, with their spaciousness, lend themselves to being filled or accompanied by hearty condiments, as in this case, a recipe that combines the sweet and earthy taste of potatoes with the sea flavor of mussels. It’s a dish that can be found in many variations along the Italian coasts, where fish and seafood are everyday ingredients.

I hope this recipe inspires you and brings a taste of Italy directly to your home!