Happy Friday! This week’s French Fridays with Dorie recipe, Mussels and Chorizo With or Without Pasta, seems like it would have been a perfect Valentine’s Day dinner. I’m sure many Doristas did serve this for Valentine’s Day. It would have been perfect except that my husband won’t touch mussels with a 10 foot pole! So I made it for lunch for myself instead.
I enjoy eating mussels but I have never cooked with them before. It really doesn’t get much easier than cooking mussels! For this recipe, chopped red bell peppers are sauteed in olive oil with onion, garlic, and thyme until soft. A can of chopped tomatoes and the chorizo are added and the mixture simmers for about 5 minutes. Add the mussels and some white wine, then cover and simmer until the mussels have opened. That’s it!
Dorie says this recipe can be served with pasta or crusty bread. I chose pasta, but after eating it I think I would have preferred the bread. You definitely need one or the other!
This was a wonderful meal! Fantastic results for such little effort. The spiciness of the chorizo added a punch of flavor to the mild mussels and the tomato sauce was quite delicious. Assuming everyone likes mussels, this would be a great dinner for company because you don’t have to spend a lot of time in the kitchen and the results are impressive.
From Scratch 
I love that you made this for yourself for a lunch 🙂
Have a great weekend!
I’m dying to make these for company. Those salty, sweet, smoky flavors are just amazing together.
How cool that you cooked these for yourself! Your mussels look delicious…so glad you enjoyed them! I did make mine for Valentine’s Day…my husband loves mussels! Have a nice weekend!
My hubby will not touch this either even on Christmas Eve when we serve
our traditional Italian feast of the seven fishes . However, that said, with all of Tricia’s gang and Nana
we do not have any leftovers This is a wonderful recipe, and with the
exception of the chorizo, this would be a great meatless addition to our
menu. Your results look wonderful, and both Tricia and I enjoyed our
different versions of the recipe.
Aww,… I think most would argue that you would want the bread AND pasta with it! I chose bread to mop up the delicious sauce and it was perfection! 🙂 I bet you have this again soon! Maybe you can make the sauce with shrimp for your husband, it sounds like others really found that combination to be very delicious too!
I’m glad you treated yourself even though your husband wasn’t interested in this dish. I agree that this was so impressive with such little effort. I know I can’t wait to make it again.
Mussels really are one of the foods that you can put together with little effort and have a superb meal! Bet you really enjoyed this for lunch (especially if you had a glass of wine with it).
I am so glad you went ahead and made this for yourself, Karen. What a delicious lunch for you! The lighting in your photos is perfect. I served this with both bread and pasta and balanced with a salad, but that’s why we had so much leftover. I also liked how good it was the next day when the flavors melded even more and I was surprised that the mussels reheated perfectly and didn’t have that rubbery texture that seafood often does when reheated the next day. I agree that this would be a perfect dish to serve for company.
It’s wonderful that you didn’t skip this recipe altogether, but decided to make it for yourself, instead. This dish was too good to miss.