This is a light sweet fish broth meant to be cooked no longer than twenty minutes. 

Longer cooking only sours the broth.

Ingredients:

A dozen mussels cleaned

1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1 onion peeled and roughly chopped

1 fennel bulb, including the tops, chopped

1 celery stalk roughly chopped

1 large carrot roughly chopped

1 large leek roughly chopped

1 tomato diced

2 garlic cloves peeled and chopped

2 bay leaves

A handful of chopped Italian parsley

A dozen black peppercorns

5 pounds of fish bones

1/2 cup dry white wine

The juice of 1 lemon

3 quarts of water

Scrub the mussels well under cold running water. Remove all the grit and grime. Pull off the beard by tugging and twisting. Set the mussels aside, heat the olive oil in a large stockpot, add the vegetables and the herbs and saute about 5 minutes until the vegetables are becoming tender. Add the fish bones and saute only for 8-10 minutes making sure to cook all parts of the fish bones and any flesh that is attached. Add the mussels to the pot and cook 2 minutes. Add the white wine to deglaze and letting the alcohol evaporate. Add the lemon juice and the water. Bring to a simmer and gently cook for 20 minutes. Strain the broth.