Delicious pasta with celery pesto and mussels

Pasta with pesto: a crowd pleaser that never disappoints. At Le Petit Bellevue, a tiny Michelin starred restaurant in Cogne, the chef made his own version of this basic dish. I enjoyed his creation with wild celery pesto, mussels and black cardamom. A surprising combo, of which I made my own version at home.

Lovage instead of wild celery

Of course, you can always head to the Aosta Valley to stock up on local wild celery. The endemic plant only grows from an elevation of 1100 meters, so it is not readily available for us. The best you can do is substitute the wild celery with lovage.

Lovage is difficult to obtain commercially, but you can easily grow it yourself. I put a plant in an earthen pot years ago, and the plant still sprouts annually. Lovage needs no special attention or care. The taste is strong, though, so use in moderation.

Black cardamom

Black cardamom is a very distinct spice from the Himalayas. It has a smoky flavor with notes of citrus and eucalyptus that admittedly goes well with mussels.

Recipe in three steps

Ingredients for celery pesto

For 4 people, you will need:

Leaves of 1 whole green celery, about 50 grams
Leaves of 2 sprigs of lovage
½ teaspoon coarse salt
40 grams peeled almonds
1 clove garlic
75 ml extra virgin olive oil

Ingredients for the pasta

For 4 people, you will need:

400 grams spaghetti
Freshly ground black pepper
1 kg mussels
1 onion
4 stalks green celery
1 knob butter
2 pods black cardamom
150 ml white wine

Step 1: making the celery pesto

Blend all the ingredients together in a blender. You can also work manually with a mortar and pestle. If you use a mortar, first rub the leaves with the salt into a puree. Then mix in the garlic and almonds. Finally, stir the mixture with the olive oil into a smooth pesto.
Step 2: cooking mussels

Rinse the mussels several times in fresh water. Remove the ones with a damaged shell and those that float to the top.

Next, roughly chop the onion and celery. Melt the knob of butter in a mussel pot, add the onion and celery. Split the cardamom in half with a knife, then add it to the vegetables with 2 teaspoons of ground black pepper. Sauté the vegetables halfway through.

Add the mussels to the pot and moisten with the wine. Seal with the lid and steam the mussels until they open.

Finally, remove the mussels from the shells and strain the liquid. Pour a little of the liquid over them so they don't dry out, then set everything aside.
Step 3: the finishing

Cook pasta in salted water until almost al dente. Drain, but keep a cup of pasta water aside.

Now put the pasta back into the pot. Pour in 100 ml of mussel liquid and 75 ml of cooking liquid and mix gently over high heat. Then add 4 to 5 tablespoons of celery pesto, as well as more mussel and cooking liquid. You should get an emulsion that evenly coats the pasta. Next, add in the mussels and let them heat up a bit more. Finally, grind some black pepper on top, and serve!

A tip I got from Fausta, my Italian teacher: never put cheese over a pasta dish with fish.