If there’s anyone I love to talk about food with, it’s my roommate Steve, who actually cooks the things that he wants to cook instead of just sitting around, dreaming, talking and blogging about it, like me. The mussels with pasta is the first recipe Steve attempted from his new Jamie Oliver cookbook, Cook with Jamie (which by the way, is a great hands-on step-by-step cookbook), and it was really good.

It was very subtle, but the basil-lemon oil and the red chili garnish made the dish pop. The mussels were steamed in white wine, turning the mussels into a tender, drunken slurp of ocean. We drank white wine and ate warm ciabatta bread with the pasta. If we only had a bitter arugula salad to go with it, it would have been lovely.

Here are some pics from dinner: Steve tapping on a mussel with the knife to check if it’s still alive.

Mussel shells. Fafa, Katie, Steve and Spage in our dining room.