Ingredients
- 60 ml olive oil
- 4 rashers of streaky bacon, sliced
- 1 garlic clove, finely sliced
- 1 kg live mussels, washed and de-bearded, or 400 g local frozen half-shell mussels, thawed
- 150 ml good-quality cider
- 60 ml cream
- 20 g flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
- 10 g fresh thyme, stalks removed
- salt and black pepper, to season
- crusty bread, for serving
Method
- Heat the olive oil in a saucepan over a medium heat and sauté the bacon until golden and crispy.
- Remove the bacon from the pan, reserving the fat in the pan.
- Add the garlic, mussels and cider – cover with a lid and allow to steam for 3-4 minutes or until the mussels have opened.
- If using local frozen half-shell mussels, cook for only 2 minutes.
- Add the cream, herbs and cooked bacon back to the saucepan, and cook quickly until reduced.
- Season well with salt and pepper and pour over the mussels.
- Serve immediately with lots of crusty bread.
A little tip: Don’t have cider in the fridge? Just use beer (that you probably have). It has a slightly stronger flavour, and goes just as well, if not better, with mussels.
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