During the Renaissance, a Venetian monk at the French abbey of Fecamp, Dom Bernardo Vincelli, created an elixir from 27 plants and spices. It was highly regarded at the court of Francois I, and continued to be made at the abbey until the end of the 18th century. During the turmoil of the French Revolution, all that came to an end. Fortunately, a Frenchman came across a cache of old manuscripts from the abandoned abbey, and put them away in his library, not knowing their value or content. One of his descendants, Alexandre Le Grand, came into possession of these manuscripts in the mid-19th century, and identified the recipe in a ‘book of spells’. Benedictine went into commercial production. By 1873, 150,000 bottles were being filled each year. In 1882, Le Grand had built for him in Fecamp, on Normandy’s Alabaster coast, a palace-museum which still houses the Benedictine operation today.
For 4 people, you will need:
1kg of fresh mussels, good olive oil, three stalks of stem garlic, three shallots, a handful of parsley leaves, 100ml of dry white wine, three tablespoonfuls of Bénédictine liqueur, three, tablespoonfuls of crème fraiche (from good supermarkets), freshly ground black pepper.
Rinse the mussels and remove the beards. Finely chop the garlic, shallots and parsley. Heat the olive oil on a medium heat in a large pan and add the shallots and two-thirds of the garlic. Once these start to turn brown, add mussels, half of the parsley, the white wine and two tablespoonfuls of Benedictine. Cover the pan for a few minutes, adding the last spoonful of Benedictine before the mussels are fully opened. Take the pan off the heat. Discard any mussels that don’t open. Now add the remaining parsley, garlic and crème fraiche, and sprinkle with freshly-ground black pepper. Serve in chunky bowls with crusty bread that has been rubbed with garlic and drizzled with good olive oil.
