Mediterranean Cooking

Mejillón de Galicia al Cava con Tomate y Albahaca (Galician Mussels with Tomato and Basil)

A recipe for a refreshing warm salad designed to enhance the flavour of the mussels and the Cava, and one that has a decidedly sophisticated touch thanks to the addition of Cava spheres.

In terms of pairing, the most obvious choice would be the same Cava used in the cooking, but given the acidity and sweetness of the tomato, it pairs beautifully with a Cava de Guarda Rosado Brut, preferably one based on pinot noir or monastrell grape varieties.

Ingredients

1.5 kg Plum tomatoes

½ Bunch basil

1 kg Fresh mussels (PDO Mejillón de Galicia)

250 l Cava de Guarda

Cava ‘caviar’

100 l Cava de Guarda

Setting bath

2 g Gluconolactate

1 L Water

0.5 g Sodium alginate

Instructions

1

Peel the tomatoes and chop with a knife. Drain for an hour, and season to taste.

2

Mix the water with the alginate, blend with a hand blender and set aside. If you leave it for 24 hours, you make sure that all the air introduced by the blender is released).

3

Whisk the Cava to remove the carbon dioxide, add the gluconolactate, and blend again.

4

To make the ‘caviar’ you’ll need to fill a pipette with the Cava mixture and drip droplets into the sodium alginate bath. Leave for 15 seconds, then remove the spheres and place them in a bowl of water.

5

Simmer the mussels in the Cava, and take them out of their shells as they open.

6

Lastly, dress the tomato with extra virgin olive oil and plate the dish, using a little of each one of the ingredients for each serving.

If you decide not to make the spheres, we recommend dressing the tomato with a few drops of Cava vinegar.

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