Mussels with Wine Sauce on Creamy Polenta
This mussels with wine recipe is guaranteed to leave your mouth watering. Served with sautéed vegetables over a bed of creamy polenta, this mussels recipe is the ultimate dish to impress your guests.
We go to a fabulous restaurant on Main Street in our small town. It is well known in our area and regularly awarded for its seafood, which is surprising because, even though we’re near the coast, we’re basically landlocked. When Christopher and I want to celebrate, we go to this restaurant for its delicious food and cocktails.
We love to sit at the bar. That’s where they shuck oysters and cook lovely appetizers like mussels and steamers. I’ve watched them like a hawk as they prepare seafood. They have an amazing cooking station behind the bar. There is a line of cooking pans with levers that tip their finished products into dishes and bowls. There are water faucets above the cooking pans to wash them after each batch.
I created this recipe in honor of that restaurant.
What gives mussels and steamed clams their flavor?
The cooking liquid they are steamed in contribute a great deal of flavor to mussels and clams. The restaurant I mention above uses chicken broth, butter, herbs and wine. The broth, which they serve for dipping, is so good you could drink it. But Christopher and I try to be circumspect and just soak it up with their fabulous dinner rolls.
Clarified butter also makes shellfish pretty delicious.
Helpful tips
- If you want to steam your own mussels, it’s very easy. Here’s how: place all chicken broth, wine, and butter in a big enough skillet with a lid. Add washed and rinsed mussels and bring to a boil. Steam for 8 – 10 minutes. Check to make sure all the mussel shells have opened. Discard any that didn’t open during the cooking.
- I love the convenience of already shucked and cooked mussels. I usually buy mine at Trader Joe’s. Not only does it change the cooking method, it also shortens the time to make it.
- Although this dish makes for a delicious meal, it also is tasty as an appetizer, with our without the creamy polenta.
- I sometimes add shallots to the vegetable mixture to add more flavor.
- Love lemon? Sometimes I add 2 tablespoons if fresh lemon juice to the wine sauce.
- Use a dry white wine like Pinot Grigio, Sauvignon Blanc.
- As garnish, you could use fresh flat-leaf parsley or even sprinkle some red pepper flakes on top.
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How to make mussels with wine sauce
TIP: Prepare the rest of the meal as you’re cooking the polenta, so that everything is finished at roughly the same time.
Step one
Gather the polenta and chicken broth.
Step two
Pour broth into a saucepan and bring it to a boil. Add the polenta and cook for 20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes. Add goat cheese and let it melt for another 5 minutes.
Step three
Gather the mussels whether you are using packaged (which I love) or fresh. Also get out the spinach and mushrooms.
Step four
Heat a wok or a large sauté pan on medium and once that heats up, add chicken broth, sliced mushrooms, garlic paste, or 3 garlic cloves, chopped, salt, and black pepper. Sauté for 5 minutes and add spinach and stir until the spinach is wilted.
Step five
Dollop some polenta on the plates. I use shallow white bowls that I got at Crate & Barrel
Step six
While the polenta is cooking: Since the mussels are pre-cooked, I heat them up in a sauté pan.
Heat the pan on medium-high heat, add butter, broth, wine and mussels and sauté for 5 minutes.
If you are using mussels in shells, they will be done once they open. Take the mussel out of the shell and remove the beards if there are any. Toss the mussels in the butter, broth and wine mixture.
Step seven
First, add the vegetables and then the mussels on the polenta. Spoon the delicious sauce on top.
Mussels with wine sauce on creamy polenta from above!
Doesn’t it make you want to dip some crusty bread in the white wine sauce in the plate of mussels?
Other popular seafood recipes
I hope you enjoyed this mussels with wine sauce recipe!
And as always, may all your dishes be delish!
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Mussels with Wine Sauce
Ingredients
Polenta
- 4 cups chicken broth
- 1 cup polenta
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 ounces goat cheese
Veggies
- 2 tablespoons chicken broth
- 10 ounces sliced portobello mushrooms
- 2 large portobello mushrooms sliced thinly
- 10 ounces baby spinach one package
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons garlic paste or 2 cloves of garlic
Mussels
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1/4 cup chicken broth
- 1/8 cup dry white wine
- 5 ounces mussels pre-packaged without shells
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
Instructions
Make it!
- In a medium saucepan, set chicken broth to boil, add polenta and 1/2 teaspoon salt and let cook for 20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes.
- Add goat cheese and continue to cook and stir for 5 minutes until cheese is melted.
- Meanwhile, put sauté pan on medium heat, add 2 tablespoons chicken broth, mushrooms, garlic paste and salt and sauté for 5 minutes.
- Add spinach and stir until wilted.
- Meanwhile put another sauté pan on medium high heat, add butter, chicken broth, wine and mussels and sauté for 5 – 7 minutes. If you are using fresh mussels in the shell, once the shells open, it's done.
- Spoon polenta into two shallow bowls or plates.
- Spoon some mushrooms and spinach mixture on the polenta.
- Top it off with mussels and wine sauce.
- Eat
- Smile
- Enjoy
See all my favorite tools and gift ideas at my Amazon Store page!Check out Elaine’s Amazon Store!Notes
- If you want to steam your own mussels, it’s very easy. Here’s how: place all chicken broth, wine, and butter in a big enough skillet with a lid. Add washed and rinsed mussels and bring to a boil. Steam for 8 – 10 minutes. Check to make sure all the mussel shells have opened. Discard any that didn’t open during the cooking.
- I love the convenience of already shucked and cooked mussels. I usually buy mine at Trader Joe’s. Not only does it change the cooking method, it also shortens the time to make it.
- Although this dish makes for a delicious meal, it also is tasty as an appetizer, with our without the creamy polenta.
- I sometimes add shallots to the vegetable mixture to add more flavor.
- Love lemon? Sometimes I add 2 tablespoons if fresh lemon juice to the wine sauce.
- Use a dry white wine like Pinot Grigio, Sauvignon Blanc.
- As garnish, you could use fresh flat-leaf parsley or even sprinkle some red pepper flakes on top.
