As we often do on a Thursday afternoon we bought a kilo of mussels from the producer’s van that comes from Bouzigues twice a week. Wondering how to cook them I was leafing through Patience Gray’s wonderful book, Honey from a Weed: Fasting and Feasting in Tuscany, Catalonia, The Cyclades and Apulia, when I found her recipe for cozze al forno, stuffed mussels in the oven, with breadcrumbs, garlic, parsley and parmesan. This gave us an idea which with some small changes to the original recipe became our supper.
We cleaned the mussels and cooked them in a glass of white wine until they were all open. While they were cooking we added chopped garlic and finely chopped fresh green pepper (from the garden) to some breadcrumbs. When the mussels were cooked we removed the empty half of the shell, covered the mussels with the breadcrumb and pepper mix, poured some olive oil over each mussel and covered them with finely grated parmesan cheese. We browned them under a hot grill and they were ready to eat.
A kilo of mussels probably would make a first course for four but we do like mussels a lot, so we ate a kilo between the two of us, followed by pasta with capers and anchovies.
Patience Gray also has a delicious Catalan dish of mussels with fresh tomatoes which I plan to try as soon as we have a few more ripe tomatoes in the garden.
(Sorry my photos are smaller than usual – I’m getting used to a new computer and hoping I’ll get the hang of it very soon!)
olivesandartichokes 
Your photos are lovely. The red sets off the shells beautifully. They are not too small to see, so I say don’t worry about it.
I like that you added green pepper 🙂
These look so good! That breading must add a nice crunch after they come out from under the grill. The fact that it’s peppery is icing on the cake. I’m posting a pasta dish on Wednesday with mussels and a quick sauce made with fresh plum tomatoes. (I had a productive visit to the Italian market last Friday.) i can’t wait to see how you prepare them with fresh tomatoes. Your dishes are always so well-prepared that I’ll surely be adding it to my recipe file, along with today’s. You just cannot have too many recipes for preparing mussels.
Patience Gray’s book is such a delight to read and so inspiring. The mussels look delicious! Speaking of capers, how are your plants coming along?
The Patience Gray recipe is worth it – do it:)
Excellent recipe – it’s not hard to eat a kilo of mussels either 😉
I wouldn’t have thought of that combination. I’ve had crab with breadcrumbs, garlic, parsley before but never added the parmesan. So now I need to try a mussel variation, and with parmesan, lovely!
Beautiful – I am always inspired by your mussel recipes. And yes, we can easily eat a kilo between two of us too!