Mussels!

You might well ask "you live in Boston, what took you so long?" and I don't know what I would answer. Laziness? Hardly, especially since I'm a 10-minute walk from a venerable Boston wholesale/retail seafood establishment, James Hook & Co. Dislike of mussels? Not likely, given how I slurp them down when we order them out. Fear of the unknown? Maybe a little of that. I ate shrimp, crawfish and oysters home in the South; lobsters and mussels were unknown to me.

But it was time, and I found an enticing recipe in the Boston Globe. They don't have the best food section but every now and again they'll have something worth reading. This recipe has a tomato-based broth and it had andouille sausage in it, and I've never met a sausage I didn't like. Chop some onion, press some garlic, cut the andouille into inch-sized pieces, put it all in a Dutch oven and add some canned diced tomatoes, salt, pepper and some olive oil. Mix very well. Roast for 15 minutes at 425, stirring once. Transfer the Dutch oven to the stovetop, and add some wine to make a nice sauce. Bring it to a boil, then add the mussels and cover the pan, shaking it every so often. After six minutes or so, the mussels should be open (you know the rule; throw away any that aren't), then spoon some of the sauce and mussels into bowls and serve with good bread and big wine like a cotes du rhone. What took me so long?