Mussel & Leek Saffron Soup

Name: Mussel & Leek Saffron Soup
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 40 min
Total time: 1 h 10 min
Ingredients: snipped chives, to serve; sea salt and freshly ground black pepper; sea salt and freshly ground black pepper; 60 g/2¼ oz unsalted butter; 1 large leek, trimmed, chopped and rinsed, green tops kept separate; 600 ml/21 fl oz/scant 2½ cups dry white wine; 1.5 kg/3 lb 5 oz mussels; 4 tbsp double cream; ⅛ tsp saffron powder; 400 ml/14 fl oz/generous 1½ cups light fish stock, hot; 200 g/7 oz/scant 1 cup arborio rice

Preparation info

Serves
4

Difficulty
Easy
Ready in
1 hr 10

Appears in

Fiori Di Zucca

By Valentina Harris

Published 2013

About

This is perhaps my favourite of all the celebration dishes my mother used to make for us. She adored mussels in a way that is hard to describe politely. This is a refined kind of soup, which my mother learned to make during her years in Brussels and that the boys and I subsequently enjoyed at La Tambura.

Ingredients

1.5 kg/3 lb 5 oz mussels
600

Fish course
Soup
Gluten-free
Pescatarian

Method

Scrub the mussels thoroughly with a stiff brush under cold running water to remove all traces of grit, then remove any barnacles or other debris attached to the shells and pull off and discard the “beard”. Rinse again and discard any with broken shells or that do not close as soon as they are tapped.

Pour the wine into a large, deep saucepan and bring to the boil over a medium heat. Add