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Try our mussel flatbreads with tarragon butter, then discover more tarragon recipes and our best flatbreads. Plus, check out our favourite mussel recipes.

If you have a pizza oven and fancy braving the chill outdoors, you can also bake these for a few minutes in the intense heat, or simply transfer to a pizza stone in your oven if you have one.

These dark blue/black, shiny shelled bivalves are best eaten when the waters are cool, from October to March. Look for fresh, live mussels rather than pre-cooked, to ensure freshness. Discard any with chipped or broken shells, give them a sharp tap on a worksurface to make sure they close, and discard any that don’t. Remove their beards – the tuft of fibres sometimes attached to the mussel. This is where they’ve attached themselves to the seabed or rope, if rope-grown. Surprisingly quick and easy to cook, mussels can be an effortless yet impressive main. Simply steam and stir into rice or pasta dishes, or serve on their own with fries.


Mussel flatbreads with tarragon butter recipe

Ingredients

  • 500g strong white bread flour
  • 7g sachet fast-action yeast
  • 2 tbsp olive oil, plus more for shaping
  • 75g butter, plus 1 tbsp
  • 1 shallot, finely chopped
  • 50ml white wine
  • 1kg mussels, cleaned
  • 1 garlic clove, crushed
  • small handful of tarragon, chopped, plus extra to serve
  • ½ lemon, juiced

Method

  • STEP 1

    Tip the flour into a bowl and add the yeast, 2 tbsp of oil and 1 tsp of fine sea salt. Pour in 300-350ml of warm water and bring to a dough in the bowl. Tip out onto a worksurface and knead for 6-8 mins or until smooth and elastic. Alternatively, knead in a stand mixer with the dough hook for 5-6 mins. Cover and leave to rise for 1 hr until doubled in size.

  • STEP 2

    When the dough has just a few minutes left to prove, cook the mussels. Heat 1 tbsp of butter in a medium lidded pan and fry the shallot for 5 mins until soft. Pour in the wine and tumble in the mussels. Clamp on the lid and cook for 5-6 mins, shaking the pan a few times, until the shells have opened. Discard any that remain closed. Strain the mussels and liquor through a fine mesh sieve into a bowl. Leave to cool for a few minutes, then remove the mussels from their shells, and put into a bowl. Discard the shells and tip any shallot caught in the sieve back into the liquid in the bowl.

  • STEP 3

    Heat the oven to 240C/220C fan/gas 9. Knock back the dough and roll into four balls with oiled hands and on an oiled worksurface. Press into four small pizza shapes with a border and a thinner middle, then put onto a lined baking sheet or two. Add a drizzle of olive oil into the middle of each (this will stop them doming when cooking). Bake for 6-8 mins or until golden and the crusts have puffed.

  • STEP 4

    Transfer the mussel liquor to a pan and simmer for 3-4 mins or until reduced by half. Stir in the remaining 75g of butter, garlic, tarragon, some black pepper and lemon. Check for seasoning – the mussels will add plenty of salt – it should be strong to flavour the breads but balanced with the lemon juice. Remove from the heat and fold in the mussels. Spoon the mussel butter over the flatbreads and scatter with a little more tarragon to serve.

Authors

Anna Glover profile
Anna GloverSenior food editor

Alternative ways with mussels

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