Mussels With Chorizo and Fennel

I made this up one day when my Dad was coming to visit. He's a big mussels fan and I always make mussels but I always went with this heavier tomato sauce which I was getting tired of. I came up with this sort of mussels soup/stew. Bottom line is it is simple, tasty and looks great. I use the same wine that I serve (wine with soup? Wha?) to cook with and I serve it with some crusty French bread. This is very filling.

• Ready In: 55 mins
• Serves: 4-6

Ingredients

• 1  lb mussels, cleaned, sorted and debearded (like a bag of mussels)
• 1  head fennel
• 1  lb chorizo sausage, removed from the casing (Italian works too but I like the heat of chorizo)
• 2  cups red wine
• 1 (340 g) package grape tomatoes (or cherry, or strawberry, etc...)
• 4 -5  garlic cloves, minced
•  salt and pepper

Directions

1. Remove the tops and stem bottom of the fennel, reserving the green 'hairs', and slice vertically into thin slices. Finely chop those hairs as well.
2. In a large sauté pan, brown the sausage over medium high heat with a little olive oil.
3. Once the sausage is browned, add the fennel and 1 cup of wine. Braise for about 10 minutes until fennel is flexible but still crunchy and the wine has reduced by half.
4. Add the tomatoes and garlic to the sausage/fennel mixture. Crush about half the tomatoes with the back of a spoon to release some of their juices. Cook for about another 5-10 minutes.
5. Meanwhile add the other cup of wine and mussels to a stockpot, cover and cook on medium heat until mussels are cooked, about 4-5 minutes.
6. Once the mussels are cooked (discard any unopened mussels), combine the mussels (and liquid) with the sausage mixture and mix well. Cook for about another 5 minutes to meld the flavours. Season to taste.
7. Serve in large soup bowls, spooning a little of the broth in each bowl and topping the fennel, chorizo and mussels mixture with some of the reserved fennel tops.