Here is how you set up Mutt without a working sendmail or exim installation. Most linux boxes I work with already have some kind of mail transfer agent installed by default, so I never really had to do this. My cygwin install on the other hand only had a bare bones, minimalistic ssmtp application that forwards emails to an SMTP server. This is in fact perfect for my needs. Here is how you set it up.
First you tell mutt where is your MTA – add this line to your .muttrc:
set sendmail="/usr/sbin/ssmtp"
You may need to configure your ssmtp to send out the emails properly. Here is what you should have in /etc/ssmtp/ssmtp.conf:
root=username@youremail.com
mailhub=smtp.yourisp.com
rewriteDomain=youremail.com
hostname=youremail.com
FromLineOverride=YES
Note that mailhub is the address of the SMTP server provided by your ISP. For example, in my case I would use smtp.comcast.net as mailhub, but and terminally-incoherent.com everywhere else.
SSMTP has an annoying tendency to rewrite the From line as it sends out emails. In my case it ended up being my_local_username@mydomain.com instead of myemail@mydomain.com.
To prevent this put this line into your /etc/ssmtp/revaliasses:
local_username:myemail@mydomain.com:smtp.myisp.com
This should do it. Enjoy! 
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Thanks alot, I found this extremely useful, my ISP blocks port 25 so I have to forward my mails when using mutt. I had never heard about ssmtp, works like a charm now
Thanks a lot Sir.
Very useful , you can type too:
mutt -s “Testing from MUTT” ivan.dimitrov@training.compliancevault.com Hola
> que tal
> probando
> test
> EOF
..and the message goes… great!.
Glad I could help.
[...] I previously covered Mutt several times, showing you how to set it up for IMAP and how to send out emails without full blown sendmail or exim setup just using basic SSMTP. There is also Pine which is a damn fine mail client too – if you can deal with editing your messages in pico. [...]
[...] Ho precedentemente dedicato parecchio tempo a Mutt, facendo vedere come settare IMAP come inviare email con sendmail o exim usando SSMTP. [...]
I know this is an old post, but does this thing work with multiple addresses at the same account?
In my yahoo I have multiple (disposable) addresses that I use depending on who I send. Ex: email to the mutt mailing list use one address, email to forums use another address, etc. And they all go to the same inbox.
I set up mutt so that the reply email varies as necessary. Can ssmtp work with this?