Recipes

Mussels saganaki is a typical Greek dish, with feta and tomato sauce. The ouzo is an essential ingredient! Delicious with crusty French bread and a green salad. You can play around with the ingredients, by adding more peppers or a red pepper. You could substitute oregano with flat-leaf parsley. You could have white wine rather than ouzo.

Rinse the mussels generously with cold water. Broken mussels, or open mussels that remain open even after lightly tapping the shell have to be discarded. Heat a good lug of olive oil in a large pan. Fry the garlic for 1 minute, make sure it does not turn brown and add the mussels and the ouzo. Bring to the boil and cover the pan with a lid. Let the mussels boil over a high heat for a few minutes until all shells are open. Shake once to make sure that the mussels down in the pan open as well. Heat a dash of olive oil in the frying pan. Fry the pepper for a few minutes and add the chopped tomatoes. Add some of the mussel cooking juice, pepper - salt if you prefer, but it is not necessary - and oregano. Leave on a high heat for 5 minutes. Stir regularly. Add the feta to the pan. As soon as it has mixed with the sauce, add the sauce to the mussels. Mix well. Serve with crusty bread and some extra feta.

Serves: 4