Creamy Seafood Risotto

Mince 2 garlic cloves. Finely chop 1 large shallot. Pick the leaves from 5 fresh parsley sprigs and finely chop if desired. Cut 1 small lemon into wedges if desired.

Prepare the following, adding each to the same medium bowl as you complete it: Core and dice 2 Roma or plum tomatoes. Finely grate 1 ounce Parmesan cheese, if needed, until you have 1/2 firmly packed cup, or measure 1/3 cup store-bought grated.

Rinse 8 ounces mussels in a strainer and check them over. All the mussels should be tightly closed. Discard any mussels with cracked shells. If the shell is open, tap the mussel lightly against the counter; if the shell doesn't close in a few minutes, discard the mussel. (If the mussels have “beards”, see How To Clean and Debeard Mussels.)

Melt 1 tablespoon of the unsalted butter in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the garlic and sauté until fragrant, about 30 seconds.

Add the mussels and 1 (8-ounce) bottle clam juice. Cover and cook, shaking the pan occasionally with the lid still on, for 3 minutes. Uncover and check the mussels. If most of the mussels are not opened by now, cover and cook for 1 to 2 minutes more.

Using tongs, transfer the mussels to a medium bowl, reserving the liquid in the pot. Add 4 cups water to the saucepan. Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Meanwhile, prepare the mussels, scallops, and shrimp. Reduce the heat to low to keep warm.

Discard any mussels that have not opened. Set aside 4 to 6 mussels in their shells for garnish (depending on how many people you will be serving). Shuck the remaining mussels, adding the meat to the bowl of tomatoes and discarding the empty shells. Pour any liquid left in the empty bowl into the saucepan with the clam juice and water.

Remove the tough side mussel from 8 ounces sea scallops and place in the now-empty medium bowl. Add 8 ounces cleaned and deveined uncooked medium shrimp. Season with 1/4 teaspoon of the kosher salt and 1/4 teaspoon black pepper and toss to combine. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Melt 2 tablespoons of the unsalted butter in a large, straight-sided sauté pan or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the shallot and sauté fragrant and soft, but not browned, 1 to 2 minutes.

Add 1 1/2 cups carnaroli, arborio, or vialone nano rice, the remaining 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt, and the remaining 1/4 teaspoon black pepper. Cook, stirring often, until the edges of the rice are translucent, but the center is opaque and you smell the aroma of toasted rice before the grains brown, 1 to 2 minutes. Add 1/2 cup dry white wine and simmer, stirring constantly, until the wine has completely reduced and the pan is almost dry, 1 to 2 minutes.

Begin incrementally adding the warm broth a 1/2 cup at a time, stirring often. Wait until the liquid has been almost completely absorbed by the rice before adding another 1/2 cup. Cook for 15 minutes from when the first broth went in, until the rice is almost al dente.

Add another 1/2 cup broth along with the scallops and shrimp. Stir gently and cook until the shrimp is pink, the scallops are cooked through and no longer translucent, the rice is al dente, and the broth is thick and creamy, 3 to 4 minutes more. (Add more broth as needed if the pan is dry.) If you run your spatula through the risotto, the risotto should flow slowly to fill in the space. You may not use all of the broth.

Remove the pan from the heat. Add the Parmesan, tomatoes, shucked mussels, and remaining 1 tablespoon unsalted butter. Stir gently until the butter is melted. Taste and season with more kosher salt and black pepper as needed. Ladle into bowls, and garnish each serving with a mussel in the shell and the parsley. Serve immediately with the lemon wedges.