Ingredients:

• 3lb of mussels
• 1 onion
• 2 carrots
• 1 stalk of leek
• 4 stalks of celery
• 3 roma tomatoes
• 5-6 garlic cloves
• 2 cups of dry white wine
• 2 tablespoons of oil
• Fresh parsley

How to prepare, step-by-step:

1. Prepare ingredients: if you use wild mussels they need more thorough cleaning; farmed ones are usually sold prepared for cooking and just need rinsing with cold water; if you wish you can use canned diced tomatoes instead of fresh ones:

   

2. Warm up big cooking pot with 2 tablespoons of oil over moderate heat; peel and chop onion, add it to the cooking pot:

   

3. Fry onions stirring occasionally, until transparent:

   

4. Then peel and slice carrots; add them to the pot:

   

5. Continue frying onions with carrots for 10-15 mins, stir from time to time:

   

6. While carrots are cooking, blanch tomatoes, I also remove seeds right before adding them to the pot:

   

7. Peel and chop garlic:

   

8. Clean and slice leek; add to pot:

   

9. And mix (the real reason why I post this picture here is because it does look great):

   

10. Add chopped celery stalks to the pot, mix and cook for 2-3 mins:

    

11. Add about 2 cups of white dry wine in:

    

12. Let vegetables and wine to cook over moderate low heat:

    

13. Meanwhile rinse and clean mussels with running cold water:

    

14. Bring heat to high and pour mussels to the cooking pot:

    

15. Let them steam over wine and vegetables until all mussels open, over time mix pot content to bring mussels from bottom to top and cook them evenly:

    

16. Then add chopped blanched and seeded tomatoes (or canned ones, to your taste):

    

17. And garlic:

    

18. Mix everything last time:

    

19. Ladle cooked mussels along with vegetables into big soup bowls, season with chopped parsley and serve hot, goes great together with toasted baguette seasoned with garlic: