We spent last Saturday night with friends in Winter Harbor, on the east side of Vinalhaven. It's a narrow channel which the more adventurous sailor can pick his way up, threading around sand bars and outcroppings of ledge.
I am not an adventurous sailor. Every time we go to Winter Harbor, I pour myself a glass of wine, lie down with a cold cloth over my eyes, and wait until I hear the anchor drop or the keel scrape bottom. Whichever comes first.
It's worth the aggravation of getting there, though. The scenery is amazing, and it's as good as landlocked, so a very sheltered anchorage. There are granite cliffs to climb and old quarries to explore. Bald eagles and osprey soar overhead. The water is lovely, warm (by North Atlantic standards) and a translucent green. And best of all, those sandbars at the tide line are loaded with mussels.
We gathered a mess of them and brought them home with us Sunday, cleaned them well and made pasta for dinner.
Winter Harbor Mussels & Pasta
3 lbs. small mussels (more or less), debearded, scraped, scrubbed, soaked and rinsed (or whatever it takes to clean them up)
1/4 cup olive oil
1 yellow onion, chopped
1/4 cup minced garlic
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
2 28-oz cans whole Italian tomatoes, undrained
1 cup vermouth
1/4 cup each chopped fresh parsley and basil
Salt and pepper
1 lb. linguini or spaghetti, cooked & drained
Heat the olive oil in a large pot. Saute the onion and garlic until the onion is tender. Stir in red pepper, tomatoes (with juices) and vermouth; bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until the liquid is reduced by 1/4 to 1/3. As it cooks, use a spoon or potato masher to crush the tomatoes.
Add the mussels; cover and simmer 5-7 minutes, until the mussels open. Discard any that remain closed. Stir in parsley and basil and season with salt and pepper.
Serve in bowls over hot cooked pasta, with plenty of bread for sopping.
Serves 4 generously.
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