My kitchen pantry is full of cans of preserves, from crushed tomatoes that I use to make sauces to accompany pasta dishes to cooked legumes and, of course, canned fish and seafood. It is not the fault of the recession that we seem to be experiencing, or at least not 100%, but of how practical they are for day to day life. And if you know how to transform them, you can have much more than a can.
One of my favorite preserves are mussels, a low-fat seafood but rich in quality proteins and omega 3. They also have iron, calcium, potassium, magnesium, iodine, selenium and phosphorus, and are a great source of vitamin B12 and folic acid. And all their nutrients are preserved if we also eat them canned. Although yes, the better the quality of the preserve, the tastier they will be.
The good thing about mussels is that they can be transformed into gildas, a seafood pâté, or simply improved with a little garlic, paprika and olive oil. What we are going to do is prepare a different appetizer using a can of natural mussels to which we are going to give a different touch.
We start by opening the can and draining the excess liquid. In a frying pan we add a splash of extra virgin olive oil in which we are going to put a little garlic to dance. We can chop it finely or even grate it, but personally I prefer to cut it into thin slices that I brown in the oil until they take on color. Once ready, add the sweet paprika, stirring carefully, and the mussels right after, letting them cool over low heat so that the paprika does not burn. We can add a little fresh chopped parsley or chives and even a little lemon zest to give it a refreshing touch.
Now imagine placing this delight on some bagged chips or eating them on some toasted bread. You can also use them as a topping in a vegetable cream, for example, although my favorite version, and the one I use the most, is to use those mussels in a quick pasta dish that I have ready in the blink of an eye.
They work perfectly as the base of a light spaghetti dish. You just have to add the already cooked pasta and a little of the cooking water to the pan to butter the sauce and achieve a creamy consistency. When it's ready, grate a little parmesan on top, a touch of parsley and you have a perfect dish for a light last-minute meal.
