43 minutes ago, Anna N said:I recently ran across another pasta recipe that called for smoked mussels and I have to admit that I could not quite get my head around it. That is rather sad because smoked mussels are cheap and an easy pantry potential. So how did you enjoy this? Would you make it again?
Sadly, over here it's neither cheap nor easy to get. So that was my first time trying smoked shellfish.
My conclusion is that I'm not a fan of smoked mussels (at least not this product, or until it might grow on me). I think that's mostly because their smell reminds me a milder version of smoked fish, which I never liked.
This is why I made pasta, it doesn't hide the mussles, but it dilutes the smoker fish taste to a level I can enjoy. I enjoyed the combination with a small amount of tomatoes, as well as garlic, lemon and herbs. I did find the long pasta from last week to work slightly better texture wise.
The mussles are added at the end so that they don't overcook. Some of their canning oil used for frying the garlic.
It's a different beast from pasta with fresh shellfish (how I wish I had some of those at hand).
I also got a can of non smoked, I'll see if I like them better unadorned.
Tl;dr, if they're cheap and you enjoy them, do try throwing them on top of pasta as a quick meal.