Throughout Charente-Maritime, you'll find beautiful flowers called hollyhocks growing everywhere. The locals have probably forgotten that long ago, our ancestors used to eat not only the petals, but also the buds, the young stems and even the roots as infusions, because in fact everything in these flowers is edible.
For the marinière:
1 Bring salted or sea water to the boil (about 3 litres (3.2 qt)), then add your macaroni and cook for 7 minutes.
2 Meanwhile, in a saucepan combine all the marinière ingredients. When the mussels have opened, drain them into a bowl and return the cooking liquid to the saucepan to reduce slightly.
3 Drain your pasta and add it to the mussel cooking liquid for another 5 minutes of cooking.
4 While that's cooking, remove the mussels from their shells, keeping a few whole ones for decoration.
5 Pour the mussels into your macaroni and at the last moment add the chopped hollyhock petals. Bring just to a boil and serve.
You can prepare everything the day before and reheat gently, but add the hollyhock petals at the very last moment.
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