Mussels in White Sauce, South Philly Style
recipe from the Philadelphia Inquirer

In South Philly this is usually served as an appetizer with lemon wedges and Italian bread for dipping. It is also excellent served as an entree. Pour the broth and mussels over linguini or fettuccini in wide soup bowls. Serve with lemon wedges, Italian bread and a green salad. You may want to use a little less hot pepper flakes for this purpose. Also add a couple of tablespoons of butter to the broth once the mussels have cooked to add richness, if desired [I don't think this needs this. There is plenty of olive oil in it.]

2 pounds mussels (15 - 18 per pound)
2 T. cornmeal [can use some flour instead which mixes with the water better]
1 tsp. salt
2 - 3 cloves garlic, minced
2 - 4 T. olive oil
1 bottle clam juice (1 cup)
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 T. [1/2 T.] hot pepper flakes
3 T. fresh parsley
1 T. oregano
lemon wedges, for serving
hot, crusty Italian bread, for serving

Scrub the mussels clean and place in cold water to cover with the cornmeal and salt for one hour. Mussels can be quite sandy and this cleans the sand out of the mussels. [I do not like using cornmeal as the the cornmeal gets stuck on the shells, although you could soak them first, then clean the shells. Also recipes often just use a little salt in the water to clean them.]

Cook the garlic in the olive oil. Then add the rest of the ingredients except the lemon [and the mussels] and heat until boiling. Add the mussels and steam for 2 - 3 minutes until the mussels open. Discard any unopened ones*. Stir to mix juices. Serve in bowls with lemon wedges and hot, crusty Italian bread for dipping in the delicious juices.

*I have read that this is a myth on Serious Eats and other reputable web sites. The myth seems to have been started by the English food writer, Jane Grigson in her 1973 publication, Fish Book. The exact quote is: "Throw away any mussels that refuse to open." The influential cookery books of the 1960s, such as Larousse Gastronomique in 1965 and Italian Food by Elizabeth David in 1966. These books made absolutely no mention of discarding unopened mussels. According to Nick Ruello, mussel expert and fisheries biologist, even if the adductor muscles refuse to bow to the heat, the meat is still safe to eat. He cooked and ate over 30 batches of mussels to confirm this. If the mussels smell fresh, they can be eaten.

Still, do not eat any mussels that stay open or are cracked before cooking.

I found that those that don"t open all the way have alot of sand or small stones in them.

Note: A general rule of thumb for serving mussels is 1/2 pound per person for an appetizer and 1–1 1/4 pounds per person for a main course (about 20 mussels per pound). Mussels have a yield percentage of roughly 25%, meaning that a pound of mussels will yield about four ounces of meat.