Mussel and bacon soup

Ingredients

670-895g/1 ½-2lb fresh mussels, cleaned
15g/½oz butter or margarine
4 rashers smoked bacon, derinded and chopped
1 onion, chopped
3 sticks celery, chopped
200g/7oz can chopped tomatoes
150ml/¼ pint stock
1 tsp fresh chopped basil
freshly ground black pepper

Method

1. Melt the butter or margarine in a pan. Add the bacon and onion and cook for 4-5 minutes.
2. Stir in the celery, tomatoes, stock and basil. Cook for about 5 minutes.
3. Add the prepared mussels, cover and cook for a further 5 minutes, shaking the pan occasionally, until all the mussels have opened. Discard any that do not open.
4. Season with black pepper.