This recipe from the July 2013 issue of Food and Wine doesn’t take long to make and is a great way to use up the season’s bountiful crop of cherry tomatoes. The recipe calls for chorizo, but I used cooked hot Italian sausage instead. Be sure to have crusty bread on the table to sop up the delicious juices!

Avoiding Additives and Preservatives

Chorizo may contain artificial ingredients, so if you can’t find an all-natural product, substitute cooked hot Italian sausage that contains no additives or preservatives. Look for cannellini or white kidney beans with only salt added, such as PC Blue Menu brand.

Cook chorizo with garlic

Add cherry tomatoes, followed by seasoning, beans and mussels

Mussels with white beans and chorizo

Ingredients:

¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 garlic clove, thinly sliced

2 ounces dried chorizo, diced

10 cherry tomatoes, halved

Pinch of crushed red pepper

Salt

Ground black pepper

One 15-ounce can cannellini beans, drained

2 pounds mussels, scrubbed and debearded

Chopped parsley and grilled bread, for serving

Preparation:

In a large, deep skillet, combine the olive oil with the garlic and chorizo and cook over high heat for 1 minute. Add the cherry tomatoes and crushed red pepper, season with salt and black pepper and cook for 1 minute. Add the cannellini beans, mussels and ½ cup of water, cover and cook over high heat until the mussel shells open, about 3 minutes; discard any mussels that don’t open. Transfer the mussels, beans, tomatoes and chorizo to deep bowls, sprinkle with parsley and serve with grilled bread. Serves 2-4.

From the July 2013 issue of Food and Wine