Zuppa di Cozze in Bianco

Name: Zuppa di Cozze in Bianco (White Mussel Soup)
Yield: Serves 6
Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients: ½ bottle white wine; 4 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped; 1 small dried chilli, crushed; 1 bunch flat-leaf parsley, chopped; sea salt and freshly ground black pepper; 75 ml (2.½ fl oz) olive oil; 2.5 kg (5.½ lb) mussels; 6 slices ciabatta bread, cut at an angle; 1 garlic clove, peeled and halved; extra virgin olive oil

White Mussel Soup

Preparation info

Serves
6

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

The River Café Cookbook

By Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers

Published 1995

About

This mussel soup comes from the Ligurian coast. It is called bianco because, unusually for Italian fish soup, it contains wine and garlic, but no tomato.

Ingredients

2.5 kg (5.½ lb) mussels
75 ml (2.½

Europe
Italy
Starter
Pescatarian
Soup
Mediterranean

Method

Clean the mussels very thoroughly under cold running water. Scrub well with a stiff brush, and scrape off any barnacles. Discard any that are open or have cracked or broken shells.

Heat 60 ml (2 fl oz) of the olive oil until very hot in the biggest pan you have, one with a tight-fitting lid. Add two-thirds of the chopped garlic; it will colour immediately. Throw in the mussels, put on t