Dinner on the grill. Fresh made pomodoro with Tomales Bay Mussels with a little hardwood smoke. Although there is a local ban here in the San Francisco Bay area on Mussels, we were surprised to see these featured at our local Whole Foods Market in Mill Valley. Is my fish guy trying to kill me? Probably…but as it turns out, not with these fine local mussels.

Normally, for shellfish like clams or mussels on the grill, I start by adding olive oil, onions, herbs etc and some kind of spicy pork (e.g. chorizo, andouille, tasso etc) to a grill safe dish. I get the grill started and cook the the mixture on direct heat until it starts to break down a bit. Add a little wine, some butter and the shellfish and you’re all set. I like the earthiness of hardwood smoke, so I usually add soaked chips right after I add the shellfish. Cover, then stir every few minutes until all the shells have opened up, crack a nice IPA or Chardonnay and you’re set for a delicious summer shellfish feast.

This time I wanted to experiment with actually cooking down a fresh tomato sauce on the grill. I started out with the ingredients for any quick pomodoro: fresh local tomatoes (I used cherry tomatoes), crushed red pepper, fresh garlic, sea salt, oregano, olive oil, onions and white wine. I’m sure there were some extra pinches of this here and dashes of that there – but you get the picture. what I got was a deliciously smoky tomato sauce that really stood up to the briny mussles, the heat of the pepper and the acidity of the wine. In fact, I saved the leftover sauce that wasn’t sopped up with the garlic bread to serve over some fresh linguine the next day.