Marinated Mussels on Tomato-Chorizo Toast
Recipe developer Kourtney pinkie-swore that this multi-step dish was entirely worth the time... and she was right! It's versatile enough to eat either as a sophisticated breakfast main or sliced into “slider” sized bites on your next snackboard. Everything can be made the night before, enabling you to spend your morning relishing the joys of plating such an eye catching dish, working on another kitchen project, or simply entertaining your very lucky guests.
Serves 4 as a meal or 8-12 as a snack.
Marinated Mussels:
2-2 ½ lbs of mussels, bearded and scrubbed
½ cup dry white wine (nothing fancy)
½ cup good olive oil
¼ cup pomegranate vinegar (red wine will work too)
2 bay leaves
1 tablespoon fresh thyme, picked from the stem
2 teaspoons parsley, finely chopped
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon aleppo pepper
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
In a large saucepan, heat mussels and white wine over medium heat and stir. Cook for 4-8 minutes for all of the mussels to open up.
Remove the pot from the heat and set aside to cool. Discard any mussels that remained shut.
Once cool, pick the mussel meat from their shells and place into a container that you'll eventually be able to seal (mason jar with screw top lid / glass container with snap top lid etc).
In a small bowl, whisk together the olive oil, vinegar, bay leaves, thyme, parsley, paprika and aleppo pepper.
Pour the marinade over the mussels. Drizzle lemon juice over the top, and then cover and refrigerate.
Tomato Jam:
1 lb cherry tomatoes, halved
2 bell peppers, cored and halved
4 tablespoons good olive oil
3 teaspoons kosher salt
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 shallot, finely chopped
¼ cup fennel bulb, finely chopped (fronds saved for garnishing)
2 tablespoon parsley, chopped
¼ cup white sugar
¼ cup balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
Preheat your oven to 375° and line a baking sheet with tin foil. Rub 2 tablespoons of oil all over the halved bell peppers and sprinkle them with 1 teaspoon of salt. Roast the peppers on the baking sheet for 10 to 15 minutes, or until they're soft and the skins slide off easily.
In a dutch oven, heat remaining olive oil over medium-high heat and melt garlic and shallot for 3 minutes. Add fennel and saute another 3 minutes.
Add cherry tomatoes to the dutch oven and stir thoroughly. After about 5 minutes the tomatoes will begin to burst from the heat. As this happens, stir the roasted bell peppers into the jam.
Add parsley, sugar, and vinegar and reduce the heat to medium-low. Simmer until soft (10 to 15 minutes), stirring often enough to prevent it from burning or sticking.
After simmering, use a potato-masher to smash any intact tomatoes or large pieces of bell pepper.
For the toasts:
4 slices country loaf, thickly sliced
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperatire
2 chorizo sausages, cooked and sliced
Remaining fennel fronds
Parsley, to garnish
2 teaspoons aleppo pepper
A few pinches of finishing salt
4 soft boiled eggs
Toast and butter the slices of country loaf.
Spread a liberal amount of tomato jam over each slice and stack chorizo slices and marinated mussels (in that order) on top of the bread.
Garnish with fennel fronds, parsley, aleppo and finishing salt.
Serve alongside soft boiled eggs for breakfast or slice each piece of toast into canape-sized bites if serving as an appetizer.
