Spaghetti with mussels in white wine sauce

Oh yes! Oh yes! Months ended with 'er' is in (i.e September, October, November and December) which indicate fresh, succulent and juicy mussels is bountiful. I bought some fresh Scottish mussels and decided to whip up a simple, quick and yet delicious pasta meal for dinner. The combination of mussels with white wine is just superb...... anyone disagree? :-)

Spaghetti with mussels in white wine sauce
Ingredients (for 2 persons)

• 400 gm fresh mussels
• 1 glass of white wine
• 1/4 cup of stock/water
  
• 200 gm spaghetti
• 1/2 tbsp butter
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• dash of sea salt
• 6 cloves of garlic-finely minced
  
• bunchful of chives- finely chopped
  
• dash of black pepper
  
• dash of red chilli flakes (optional)

1. Clean, de-beard the mussels and place them in a pot . Boil a kettle of water. Pour into the mussels in the pot. You'll notice that the shell of mussels will open slightly. Put on the gas stove and continue to boil for a minute or so and most of the mussels should open to reveal their orangy flesh. Drained into a colander. Discard any tightly clad shells as they're bad.
2. Cook the spaghetti as per the instruction on the package. Once al-dante, drained.
3. In a pan, seared the butter until fragant, add in half of the minced garlic and fry till aromatic. Add in the mussels and stir. Then pour in the wine, stock, turn to low heat, close the lid and let it simmer, this takes about 5minutes. Off the heat.
   
4. In another pan, pour in the olive oil and fry the garlic till fragant. Then add in the spaghetti and coat well. Pour the mussels and the white wine sauce into the spaghetti. Mix well. Add in the salt, black pepper and chives. Turn off the heat and mix well.
5. Scoop onto a plate and garnish with some red chilli flakes to give a kick to this meal. Served hot.

P/S: You can drizzle more olive oil onto your spaghetti if you like.

I'm looking forward to a trip to Wells next to Sea this Sunday in search for fresh mussels and oysters.