Cozze Bianco(white mussels) with Orecchiette (pasta)

Cozze Bianco with Orecchiette

Or just call it drunken pasta with mussels because it calls for white wine AND anise liqueur. If you ever had the white mussels at Carrabba's Italian Grill, you know about that sauce! I can drink it as a soup or ...drink? I added one of my favorite pastas orecchiette because the grooves and dent in it makes it ideal to pick up sauce. I added shrimp to the mix because I had it already on hand so why not? Get your wine glasses out, pour some of the white wine you'll be cooking with *pinot griot* and let's cook.

Ingredients

1 box orecchiette pasta

1 1/2 mussels *pressed for time so I used frozen*

1 in shrimp

3 bunches of basil

1/4 cup white onion

4 cloves garlic

2 cups white wine * I used pinot griot*

1/4 cup anise liquor
Half lemon

1 cup ghee or clarified bitter
2 tbsp sea salt

Prep - Clean and devein shrimp, put in a bowl of ice to the side. Slice cherry tomatoes in half, pit them out and put to the side. Chop up basil leaves. Dice onion.

In a pot, pour in 2 tbsp of butter on medium heat. Add shrimp and cook on each side for 1 minute. Once shrimp is cooked, remove from pot and put in bowl to the side. In a still simmering pot, add dives onions. Once translucent, grate garlic into pot. Stir and add white wine to simmer for a minute. Then, add butter, 2 bunch basil, anise liquer, mussels and juice from lemon . Stir once and simmer for 3 minutes. Take mussels out and put to side with shrimp. Change heat to mid low. Add salt and cover. Cook pasta for 9-11 minutes and drain. Throw shrimp, mussels and tomatoes in with the pasta and fold them in. Let sit for 5 minutes so pasta and seafood can absorb the flavors. Serve and enjoy!