Recipe no. 49 from Jean-Baptiste Reboul's La Cuisinière provençale (1909), page 33.
Ingredients
- 4 or 5 dozen mussels
- a litre of water
- a finely sliced onion
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 or 3 tablespoons of olive oil
- the white of a finely sliced leek
- about 200 grams of rice per litre of liquid (or thick vermicelli in substitution)
- a pinch of saffron
- salt and pepper
- a chopped tomato (optional)
Preparation
- Opening the musselsScrape and wash the mussels, cook them covered in the water with the onion and bay leaf just until they open, then strain them through a sieve, keeping the shelled molluscs to one side.
- Browning the leekBrown the white of leek halfway in the olive oil, then pour in the mussel broth, decanted of its sediment.
- Cooking the riceBring to a boil, add the rice and the saffron, season bearing in mind the salt already present in the mussel water, and let cook gently.
- Finishing with the musselsAdd the mussels last, a few minutes before the rice or vermicelli is cooked.
Reboul's text
Take 4 or 5 dozen mussels, scrape them and wash them well. Put them into a saucepan with a litre of water, a finely sliced onion and 2 bay leaves; cover the saucepan and let cook a few minutes, just the time needed to make the mussels open. Then pour the whole onto a sieve set over an earthenware bowl, take the molluscs out of their shells and keep them on a plate.
Separately, put into a saucepan 2 or 3 tablespoons of olive oil and the white of a finely sliced leek; let it brown halfway and pour in the mussel broth, after separating off the sediment, which is always more or less loaded with mud. Bring to a boil and add, for each litre of liquid, about 200 grams of rice and a pinch of saffron; add salt and pepper accordingly, bearing in mind that the mussel water is always salty; let cook gently.
This soup is also made by substituting thick vermicelli for the rice; the method remains the same.
One may also add a chopped tomato; it is then lightly browned with the leek before adding the liquid.
The mussels are added last, a few minutes before the rice or vermicelli is cooked.
Small Provençal glossary for this recipe
Reboul writes in French: no Provençal word appears in this recipe, apart from the dish's name itself. The table below gives the Provençal equivalents of the words used, in mistralian spelling, translated by Lingua Nostra. Each form is attested in our Provençal-English dictionary; click to open the entry.
| Provençal | English |
|---|---|
| sedas | sieve |
| tian | earthenware bowl |
| pòrri | leek |
| òli | olive oil |
| ris | rice |
| safran | saffron |
| verlichèlli | vermicelli |
| toumàti | tomato |
Source: Jean-Baptiste Reboul, La Cuisinière provençale, Marseille, 1909, recipe no. 49, page 33. Public domain. Transcription, formatting and Provençal glossary by Lingua Nostra.