Italian Seafood Rice Salad

Cook Time 45 minutes

Servings 4

Ingredients

2 cups cooked long grain rice, cooled 

500g black mussels

100ml white wine

100ml extra virgin olive oil

2 lemon peels, juice of half

1 long red chilli, halved

2 cloves of garlic, bruised

4 green prawns, peeled and deveined and butterflied

4 scallops

2 squid, cleaned and cut into 2x4 cm rectangles, tentacles cut in half

1 punnet of cherry tomatoes, halved

4 sprigs of parsley, finely chopped

12 Sicilian olives, pitted and halved

1 stalk celery, finely sliced

1 tbsp capers 

Salt and pepper

Method

Heat a sauté pan over a high heat and add the mussels and wine. Place the lid on and cook for 1 minute, shaking the pan half way. Once they start to open, remove with a slotted spoon, leaving the cooking liquid in the pan.

Add the olive oil, lemon peel, chilli and garlic. Turn the heat to medium-low ensuring it doesn’t boil and add the prawns, scallops and squid. Coat in the liquid and cover.

Poach for 3-4 minutes until the seafood is just cooked.

Use a slotted spoon to transfer to a large salad bowl. Remove mussels from shells and add to the bowl along with the rice, tomatoes, celery, parsley, olives and capers. Add the lemon juice and a few tablespoons of cooking liquid. Toss everything together. Check seasoning, it may not need any salt due to the mussel cooking liquid which would have seasoned the seafood.