Mussels unfettered by garlic taste more like their own sweet, turgid selves. On the tiny porch of the seaside bar where we ate this pasta, the cook who was the mussel gatherer who was the bartender who was the pastrymaker added crushed, dried seaweed to the finished dish. He cooked the mussels and the pasta over a fire he’d built of driftwood a few meters from the bar. It was a fairly good-sized blaze, ample enough to heat an old cauldron along with the mussel pot, it bubbling with a potion of wild myrtle berries in which he immersed a great, gray fish net, tinting it, cooking it to a deep, bright blue.

　　

Ingredients

serves 4

　　12 ounces bucatini or other dried string pasta

　　Coarse sea salt for the water

　　1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

　　1 tablespoon fennel seeds, crushed

　　1 tablespoon rosemary leaves, minced

　　24 mussels, scrubbed, bearded, and dried

　　1 1/2 cups dry white wine

　　1/4 cup good-quality white wine vinegar

　　4 ounces dried black olives, stones removed

　　1/4 cup capers, preserved under salt, rinsed, and dried

　　1 cup just-made fine bread crumbs, sautéed in 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

　　

Step 1

Cook the pasta in abundant boiling, sea-salted water to al dente, draining it but leaving it somewhat wet and transferring it back to its cooking pot to await its sauce.

　　

Step 2

While the water for the pasta reaches the boil, attend to the mussels. In a very large, heavy pot over a medium flame, warm the olive oil and scent it with the fennel and rosemary. Add the mussels and roll them about in the oil for a minute or two before adding the wine and the vinegar and bringing it all to a simmer. Cover the pot and steam the mussels, removing them with a slotted spoon to a deep bowl as they open. Over a lively flame, reduce the mussel-cooking liquors for 2 or 3 minutes.

　　

Step 3

Remove from the flame. Add the olives and the capers and reacquaint the mussels with their sauce. Add the cooked pasta to the pot, tossing it about with the mussels and the sauce for a few seconds only to warm it. Turn the whole out into a warmed, shallow bowl, dusting it with the golden bread crumbs

　　A Taste of Southern Italy