Mussels - Ancient Roman Recipe

Today, we prepare an ancient Roman mussel dish. We need 500 grams of mussels, 1 leek, savory, cumin, garum, 100 milliliters of dry white wine and 50 milliliters of passito. Passito is a sweet wine, also called raisin wine or straw wine, produced with dried grapes. It's widely used in ancient Roman cooking to add a slight sweetness. First, we cut the leek. Don't mince it too thin, we don't want it to dissolve during the cooking. We use just a third of the leek for 500 grams of mussels. We put the mussels in a hot pot, then we add the leek and the wine. You can use any dry white wine. Then we add the passito. Its sweetness is perfect to balance the saltiness of the mussel and garum and the acidity of the dry wine, but you can change the quantity if you want to add more or less sweetness. Then we add the garum. Remember that the saltiness is different for every producer. Don't use too much of it. You can add more at the end of the cooking, when you'll taste the dish. Then we add some twig of savory. You can use fresh or dry, all cumin seeds, and a little bit of water. When the juices of the mussel and the wine start to boil, they make a lot of foam. Just lower the heat and let cook for a few minutes, stirring now and then. At the end, you'll have a clear broth. In this recipe, we use garum, a staple ingredient in ancient Roman cooking. Garum is an ancient Mediterranean fish sauce used by Greeks, Romans, and Phoenicians. It was made from different species of fishes, with or without spices. Some types of garum were produced in the same way of modern-day Southeast Asian fish sauces, and you can use them to substitute garum if you don't find it. This recipe is part of a collection attributed to Marcus Gabius Apicius, a fundamental cookbook that shows an interesting insight into the alimentary habits of ancient Romans and Mediterranean populations. When all the mussels open, they are ready to plate. This is a fast and easy dish with a complex and well-balanced flavor, a perfect way to revive the delicious and refined culinary culture of ancient Rome.