For me, a native of La Spezia, muscles are something you can’t do without, provided you adopt an “all-inclusive” diet and don’t have allergies!

We identify mussels with the term “Muscoli” (muscles) and they have different names depending on the region: Peoci (Veneto), Pedoli (Friuli) or Mòscioli (Marche) or even Mitilo, the Latin name for the species found in the Mediterranean, mytilus galloprovincialis.

In La Spezia, mussels are bred in our beautiful gulf where the calm, plankton-rich and relatively unsalted waters provide a particularly suitable habitat for their cultivation.

The mòscioli, on the other hand, are typical of the marine area around the Conero and were originally only “wild” but then, thanks to strong demand, they began to be bred and are now recognised as a “slow food” presidium.

But also in Veneto, we have an excellence recognised by the European Community: we are talking about the Scardovari D.O.P. mussels bred in the Scardovari Sacca in the province of Rovigo.

What better time to taste them than in summer when the tasty mollusc has reached the peak of its development!

There are various ways in which they can be used in our gastronomic tradition, and all over Italy you can find similar versions of the same preparations, but always with that special something that makes them unique and different depending on the region or sometimes the place where they are prepared.

So here is the La Spezia recipe for stuffed muscles, a bit laborious but certainly satisfying. Enjoy!

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Ingredients for 3/4 people:

• 1.5 kg muscles
• Extra virgin olive oil to taste
• ½ glass of white wine
• 1 or 2 cloves of garlic
• cooking string

For the filling:

• 120 g grated stale bread;
• 100 g of mortadella;
• 50 g milk;
• 1 medium-sized egg;
• 2 fillets of anchovies in oil;
• 1 clove of garlic, minced;
• 1 bunch of parsley;
• 20 g of grated Parmesan cheese;
• Salt and pepper to taste

For the tomato soup:

• 1 kg fresh tomatoes and if you use peeled tomatoes or tomato puree 500 g approx
• 150 g onions
• Extra virgin olive oil to taste
• 1 clove of garlic
• basil to taste
• salt and possibly a pinch of sugar to correct the acidity of the tomatoes

Preparation methodology

Tomato sauce

In my Ghisanativa I put a tablespoon of olive oil, the coarsely chopped onion, the clove of garlic, and the chopped tomatoes; I simmered the sauce for about 20 minutes then mashed it, added salt, a pinch of sugar, and chopped basil leaves..

For the muscles

I washed and scraped the shells well with a small brush and removed the byssus (1). I chose the biggest mussels and opened them raw with the help of a small knife (2). I calculated about 30.

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I opened about ten mussels on a high flame for about two minutes in a covered pot with a mixture of oil, garlic, and white wine (3). I filtered the water and opened the mussels, chopped them with a knife – but you can also use a crescent moon – and added them to the bread filling.

For the filling

I soaked the breadcrumbs in warm milk; I finely chopped the mortadella, the parmesan, the parsley, and the garlic, the two anchovy fillets together with the egg in a blender and added everything to the soaked bread (4).

Finally, I added the chopped muscles and mixed well, adjusting the taste with salt and pepper and possibly a little water released by the muscles (always calculate a little more bread in case the filling is too soft).

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Stuffing the muscles and cooking

I filled each muscle with a teaspoon of stuffing and I closed it (5) – some of them will not close, so arm yourself with “patience” and tie them with cooking string (6) – then I arranged the muscles neatly in the sauce to which I added a little bit of water from the muscles (the sauce must be a bit liquid) and let them cook for about 30 minutes on a low flame.

Serve them warm (after untying them) as an appetiser or main course.

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Michela Oppo

“Cooking teacher, Venetian by adoption, born and lived until the age of 18 in the city of La Spezia from a Sardinian father and a Ligurian mother, from La Spezia to be precise, with a little Piedmontese blood. I left pieces of my heart in Shanghai, Buenos Aires and London. There are many reasons why I cook, to feed and to nourish myself of course, but I think I cook above all for love, for love of my loved ones and why not, to be loved in turn. I love the tango, the sea, books that make you dream, ceramics, fans, languages and… cooking and baking of course!”

This recipe was prepared on