Cozze alla Marchigiana

I was in the Pacific Northwest recently visiting family and as usual, I was amazed at the abundance of fresh local seafood available in the local markets. Beautiful locally raised black mussels for $5.99/lb is not something you’d ever see in L.A., but large chains like Costco as well as small seafood specialty stores around Seattle carry these and other seafood treasures on a regular basis.

Part of our trip included time on Lopez Island, in the San Juan Islands archipelago that lies between Washington State and Canada. Lopez Island features wonderful local seafood at Jones Family Farms, where baby oysters are being grown in preparation for being placed in the cold waters of Lopez Sound to grow to maturity, and where a whole range of fresh seafood is offered at incredible prices. Best of all, during the season Dungeness crab can be crabbed in the local waters, and prepared for the whole family.

This is also the way it is in Marche, Italy. Our six-week stay near Senigallia, on the Adriatic coast of Marche, opened our eyes to a whole universe of the sea’s cornucopia we had never encountered here! We found seafood straight off the boat caught right there in the wide Adriatic Sea by fishermen apt to be part of a multi-generational fishing family. Where American seafood markets may offer octopus and squid, the supermarket in Senigallia had five or six additional versions in the same range—cuttlefish, of course, but others with no obvious English translation: and all delicious! We became so used to this extraordinary variety of options at the seafood counter that it was a shock, returning home, to see the more limited range of seafood here.

This simple and fast dish is unusual in its use of saffron. While saffron is grown and harvested in Italy, today, it probably originated in Persia. Perhaps it ended up in Marche from the spice trade of nearby Venice.

This recipe serves 4 as a first course.

·2 lbs. live black mussels

·Salt and pepper

·Extra virgin olive oil

·3 cloves of garlic, 2 minced and 1 cut in half for the crostini

·1 baguette of crusty bread

·1 bunch parsley

·4 Roma tomatoes, diced, or any of your summer garden tomatoes

·A big glass of white wine

·1 small lemon, juiced

·1 big pinch of saffron

1. Prepare a large bowl with cold water, ice and a big handful of salt; mix to dissolve. Clean the mussels by vigorously rinsing and pulling out any beards. Place in the salt-water bath for about 1 hour to let the mussels expel any sand.

2. Make the crostini by slicing the bread ½-inch thick. Heat oven to 350-degrees. Place the bread slices on a sheet pan and drizzle with olive oil. Bake for 10-15 minutes, flipping them over once, until the bread is crusty on top. Remove from the oven, rub with the cut garlic clove and sprinkle with a little salt.

3. In a large pan with a lid, warm a few tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil over medium heat. Add the minced garlic and chopped parsley and some salt and pepper. Stir until the garlic is lightly browned.

4. Add the diced tomatoes and stir. Cook until the tomatoes become soft but not too mushy.  Add the white wine and cook for a minute more.

5. Add the mussels, saffron and lemon juice. Combine and cover with the lid. Cook until the mussels have opened. Discard any mussels that don’t open.

6. Serve in big bowls including lots of broth along with the crostini for dipping in the mussel broth.