Mediterranean Cooking

Rice with Galician Mussels and Iberian Pancetta

Cava de Guarda Superior Reserva Siviendo.png

Cava Reserva is aged for a minimum of 18 months adding depth, aroma and complexity, with abundant bubbles and a pleasant freshness.

2 hour

Difficulty

4 people

Seafood

Rice is enormously versatile, and can be prepared in a multitude of different ways. In this recipe, it’s used together with Iberian pancetta to enhance the flavour of the mussels. The fat from the pancetta combined with the starch from the rice and the touch of acidity added by the escabeche sauce make a Cava Reserva Brut the ideal companion to the dish.

Ingredients

1 kg Rockfish

2 L Water

400 g Bomba rice

1 Can mussels in escabeche sauce (PDO Mejillón de Galicia)

200 g Iberian pork belly

300 g Onion

Instructions

Brown the fish in a pan, and add the water. Boil for 50 minutes, and then strain.

Finely chop the onion, and sweat for one hour. Add the rice, and then gradually incorporate the fish stock.

Thinly slice the pancetta with the help of a mandolin or a meat slicer.

To plate, top the rice with the mussels in escabeche and the thin slices of pancetta. Allow to stand for a minute or so to cool slightly.

We recommend freezing the pancetta to make it easier to slice.

Make sure that the stock is hot when you add it to the rice to keep the cooking temperature constant. Depending on the amount of stock used, the result will be a dry, creamy or caldoso (‘soupy’) rice.

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