Riso, patate e cozze 🍚🥔🐚

Baked dishes based around typical local produce are quite common in Apulian cuisine and this preparation with rice, potatoes and mussels is surely amongst the most popular. The popularity of this recipe is linked to its versatility, as it can be consumed cold or warm and it can be carried around and be eatean also away from home, for a picnic or at a party. Versatility doesn’t come cheap, as this is a dish that requires some culinary skills to be prepared in the right way. This preparation is also know as tiella, the local name for oven dish.

Ingredients for 4 people:

500g of mussels
500g of potatoes
300 g of Carnaroli rice
2 cloves of garlic
30g of parsley
3 large red tomatoes
half white onion
50g Parmigiano reggiano (or pecorino romano) grated
30g of breadcrumbs
5 tablespoons of Extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper

Preparation:

Start cleaning the mussels well by removing all external barnacles and wash them well under running water to remove all impurities. With the help of a small knife with a smooth blade, open the mussels, starting from the tip and making a turn along the edge of the mussel. During the operation, place a bowl under the mussels to collect their water. Always with the knife, detach the mollusc from the upper valve and bring it entirely on the lower valve. Remove the empty valve and gently press the mollusc so that it releases all the water. When you have opened all the mussels, filter the obtained mussel’s liquid with a narrow-meshed sieve, so as to eliminate any residual shell or sand.
Peel the potatoes and cut them into thin slices, helping with a mandolin, and keep aside in a bowl with cold water. Wash the tomatoes and cut them into round slices such as potatoes. Meanwhile, mince the garlic, wash and finely chop the parsley. Finally slice the onions with a mandolin.
Oil with 4 tablespoons of oil a deep ceramic baking dish and begin to compose the dish: place the onion on the bottom, a little garlic and arrange the potatoes, so as not to leave any space. Add a few slices of tomato, salt, pepper and distribute a handful of chopped parsley. Now arrange the raw mussels radially or complementarily, leaving as little as possible space between them.
Now distribute the uncooked rice, covering the entire surface of the dish. Pour gently all the filtered mussels water from one side of the pan, which will make the preparation tastier.
Now start again with a layer of potatoes arranged radially and close together and complete the layer with the remaining tomatoes. Add salt and pepper again and distribute the remaining parsley. Sprinkle the surface of the tiella with a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil and finish with sprinkling the surface of the tiella first with the Parmesan or grated pecorino and then with the breadcrumbs.
Pour from one side of the pan gently enough water until you get just below the gratin layer.
Bake in a hot oven at 200° for 60 minutes, putting the pan in the lower part of the oven.
Let it cool a bit before serving it.