Erica De Mane

A tarantella from Ischia sung by Pino De Vittorio.

Recipe: Little Mussels with Cherry Tomatoes, Chives, and Spring Herbs

Whenever my fish man at the Greenmarket has little mussels, I grab them. First off, any mussels from the Greenmarket are local, just caught, and as fresh as can be. But the little ones remind me of Southern Italy, in particular the ones I had many moons ago when I visited the island of Ischia, the beautiful sister island to Capri off the Bay of Napoli.

Mussels in general are something I usually can’t resist, but they’ve got to be totally fresh or they can turn on you (I’m sure you can recall one such experience). The ones I ate in Ischia so many years ago were pitch black, glistening, smooth, about a half inch to an inch long. Their beauty alone was enough, but then there was their taste, sweet, briny, cooked in white wine with those incredible Neapolitan cherry tomatoes that hang in clusters all over the place, and tons of herbs. Eating those little beauties in big glass bowls on an Ischia beach, the blaring sun and the fizzy white wine did something poetic to my distance vision. I watched, in a glazed-over fashion, as fishermen, pulling up in their turquoise boats (the brightest turquoise ever, at least to me, at that time and place), hauled in even more mussels. But even in the confines of my mini New York apartment, the Montauk mussels I purchased from the Greenmarket were out of this world.

Eating those mussels reminded me of something else, a singer I’ve just come to love very much, a man named Pino De Vittorio, from Puglia. He specializes in reviving Southern Italian folk music. His voice and movements are beautiful, sometimes hauntingly so (like Southern Italy in general). In the video above he sings a gentle (some aren’t so gentle) tarantella from the island of Ischia.

Little Mussels with Cherry Tomatoes, Chives, and Spring Herbs

(Serves 2)

Extra-virgin olive oil
1 shallot, thinly sliced
1 stalk young spring garlic, very thinly sliced, using all the tender green part too
1½ pints cherry tomatoes, stemmed
About 2 pounds small mussels, well washed and bearded if necessary
A big splash of dry white wine
1/2 cup homemade or good quality store-bought chicken broth
Freshly ground black pepper
Salt, if needed
A big handful of fresh herbs, very lightly chopped. A good mix is chives, Italian parsley, mint, fennel fronds, and tarragon
2 tablespoons unsalted butter

Heat about 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large pot over medium flame. Add the shallot, and let it soften. Add the garlic, and sauté until it releases its aroma, about 30 seconds or so. Add the cherry tomatoes and the mussels, and stir everything around for a minute. Add the white wine, and let it bubble for a minute. Add the chicken broth, and cook, uncovered, stirring the mussels a few times, until they’ve opened, usually about 4 or 5 minutes. Add a good amount of black pepper and a little salt, if needed (that will depend on the saltiness of your mussels). Turn off the heat, and add all the herbs and the butter. Give everything a good stir. Serve right away. This is especially good with bruschetta rubbed with garlic and then brushed with olive oil.