Ditalini pasta with mussels and beans

Ditalini con cozze e fagioli

Serves 4

You can find this in all of Taranto’s typical trattorie. The brothy sauce makes this something between a pasta and a soup, and it is always served with a spoon. Instead of borlotti beans, you can also use cannellini beans or even potatoes, peeled, diced into 1cm cubes and boiled together with the pasta. — 1kg live mussels in their shells, beards and any exterior grit removed — 240g ditalini pasta (or other very small soup pasta) — 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra for drizzling — 1 garlic clove, finely chopped

— ½ onion, thinly sliced — 125ml dry white wine — 1 large ripe tomato, diced — 200g cooked borlotti beans, drained

— 1 hot red chilli, finely chopped (optional) — handful of flat-leaf parsley, leaves finely chopped Check over the mussels and discard any that are cracked or open and won’t close when gently prodded. Make sure the mussels are cleaned well in fresh water. To open the mussels, heat them in a wide, shallow, dry frying pan over a medium-high heat. Cover, and shake the pan occasionally to help the mussels move around (the ones on the bottom will find it harder to open fully than the ones on top). After about 1-2 minutes, check them and, with a pair of tongs, begin pulling out the mussels that have already opened and transfer these to a large bowl. Continue until all the mussels have opened (any that are still tightly shut can be discarded). Turn off the heat.

Strain the precious mussel liquid left in the pan – using either a very fine-mesh sieve or a regular sieve lined with a paper towel and set over a bowl – and pull out the meat from the shells (reserving some whole mussels to garnish), discarding the shells.

In the meantime, bring a large pan of salted water to the boil and cook the pasta according to the instructions on the packet (minus one minute of cooking time).

Heat the olive oil in a wide frying pan over a low heat and gently fry the garlic and onion for about five minutes, until the garlic is fragrant and sizzling but not coloured. Pour in the wine and increase the heat to medium. Add the tomato and simmer for a further five minutes (if you’re using a tomato that you think is probably not as ripe as one that you would find in sundrenched Puglia, let it cook for 10 minutes, and add a splash of water if you find the liquid is reducing too much).

Add the beans, the mussel meat and liquid, and taste for seasoning (this is important to do only after you add the liquid from the mussels as it can be quite salty). Add the chilli, if using, and some freshly ground black pepper. Bring to a simmer and cook for two minutes, then toss over the parsley as you take it off the heat.

Drain the pasta (reserving some of the cooking liquid if you feel you didn’t have enough mussel-cooking liquid) and serve with the sauce of mussels and beans (add a splash of the pastacooking liquid if necessary) and a drizzle of olive oil.