Pasta with mussels and cannellini beans

Today we went to the local fish market and bought some lovely fresh mussels. We had cannellini beans and tinned tomatoes in the store cupboard and the staples of garlic & EVO oil.

I made a sugo in the usual way and after scrubbing the mussels, just added them to the sugo to cook - a last minute addition of the beans and pasta and we had a very healthy and well balanced meal.

On this particular time we were joined by this sweet little calico cat, who has been visiting for the weeks that we have been here (we always have a bag of cat food for these little foragers - there are many stray-looking cats in this village (they don’t spay them here). So far we have been visited by about 6 different cats, but this little one and another little grey stripey one are our favourites. The wee calico is so ravenous that I suspect that she is pregnant.

We threw her a couple of mussels that had bits of pasta and sugo on them and she demolished all of it! Even the mussel shells were licked clean. I wish I could get our cat to enjoy pasta and sugo!!

Recipe:

Ingredients -

serves 3

For the sugo:

30g EVO oil

1 tin pelati tomatoes

2 cloves garlic

Salt & pepper to taste

Parsley leaves - chopped

200g tinned cannellini beans

1k mussels

180g pasta of your choice

Method -

For the pasta:

Bring a large pot of water to the boil

Add salt

Put pasta in, then bring back to the boil and cook according to packet instructions

When pasta is ready, toss into the sugo and stir until all the pasta is coated

For the mussels:

Soak the mussels in lots of fresh, cold water and scrub each one with a softish vegetable brush to clean off the beards

Toss into the sugo when the sugo is cooked, then bring back to the boil, cover and lightly cook until all mussels are open

Throw in the tinned beans and add chopped parsley