A watercolour of small orange mussels in a red tomato and chilli sauce in a shallow dish
Generated with OpenAI gpt-image-1
Adapted from Spanish mejillones en salsa

Tinned mussels in tomato and chilli

An established dish converted to shelf-stable ingredients. Every substitution is documented below.

How long it keeps

About 6 months, set by Olive oil.

Indicative, for planning a build before you buy. The answer for a pack you already own is the best before date printed on it, and that only holds if it has been stored as the label says.

Serves
2
Burners
1
Pans
1
Water
0.1 L
Active
8 min
Total
20 min

Ingredients

Tinned mussels are cheap, deeply savoury and almost entirely overlooked. The one rule is that they are already cooked: put them in at the start and you get rubber.

  1. Oil, dried onion three minutes, then garlic, paprika and chilli for twenty seconds.
  2. Tomatoes in, cooked down hard for 12 minutes until brick-coloured and thickened. This is where all the work is.
  3. Off the heat entirely, stir in the drained mussels. Ninety seconds in the residual heat is enough to warm them through.
  4. Vinegar over.

Keep a spoonful of the brine from the tin and add it if the sauce needs salt: it is far more interesting than salt on its own.

Serves 2 with bread or on polenta.

What this was adapted from

Spanish mejillones en salsa: tinned mussels served in a sharp tomato sauce

  • fresh mussels steamed open → tinned mussels, added at the very end

    Fresh mussels cook in their own liquor, which becomes the sauce. Tinned ones are already cooked and turn rubbery if simmered, so the sauce is built separately and they go in for the last ninety seconds. Less briny depth, and a dish that works from a locker.