Tag: snails

Braised Snails Recipe – Italian Cuisine – Italian Cuisine

Ingredients

1 Kg purged snails
300 g tomato sauce
3 tablespoons of soy sauce
2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons of extra-old Traditional Balsamic Vinegar of Modena PDO
1 onion
1 carrot
1 stalk of celery
laurel
peppercorns
Juniper berries
salt
rosemary
parsley
fennel
basil
flour
extra virgin olive oil
lightly salted butter

Duration: 1 h

Level: For experts

Doses: 6 people

Cut halve the onion, leaving it with the skin, and roast it until golden brown in a very hot, oil-free pan.
Collect in a saucepan 3 liters of water, the cleaned carrot and celery, the toasted onion, 1 bay leaf, 1 sprig of rosemary, pepper and juniper to taste and simmer for about 1 hour without ever coming to a boil. Finally filter it.
Bring the broth to a boil, add the snails and cook them for 4-5 minutes from the resumption of boiling. Drain and strain the broth.
Shelledsnails and clean them. Salt and flour them lightly. Sauté them in a pan with a drizzle of oil for 2 minutes. Add a knob of butter and cook for another 1 minute. Finally, add the tomato sauce (the recipe is on page 144) and the filtered broth, to cover the snails. Stir and cook with a lid on for about 30 minutes.
Add 2 tablespoons of extra-old balsamic vinegar, 3 tablespoons of soy sauce and 2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar. Cook for another 10 minutes, adjusting the flavor with an extra pinch of soy sauce.
Remove the snails from the pot with the help of tongs and filter the cooking liquid through a sieve, in order to retain all the impurities.
Do it reduce by half, then put the snails back on. Stir in a knob of butter, pepper, a pinch of salt, if necessary, and a drizzle of oil.
Serve with fresh aromatic herbs.

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Pizza with snails – Italian Cuisine

It will be presented on September 21st at the international heliculture convention: the goal is to make a gourmand ingredient part of the "popular gastronomy"

Pizza with mushrooms, four cheeses or ham? Pass. Here comes the snail pizza, which will be launched for the first time on September 21 in Campania, in Piana di Monte Verna, province of Caserta, site of the international heliculture conference (which leaves its traditional headquarters in Cherasco, province of Cuneo). The goal is to clear an ingredient gourmand to make it part of the "popular gastronomy".

The idea of snail pizza, those strictly certified by the brand Italian Snails Supply Chain, born from Italian Confederation of Helicopters. As the breeders' association explains, "the meat of the Helix snails is easy to combine, contributes to making the dish very digestible, thanks to the minimum percentage of lipids and at the same time ensures an adequate intake of proteins. It is easy to handle in the kitchen, once boiled and tender, ready to be put on pizza in the oven without other treatments".

To stuff the pizza, "the required quantity is 30-35 grams, which is equivalent to seven or eight shelled snails". And the cost? "It is similar to other ingredients traditional like ham, cheese or mussels ”.

The meat of the Italian snail is rich in proteins with high biological value (13.4%), and is very lean, with a percentage of fats around 1.2%. According to the data of theHorticulture institute, can relate to lean fish. Snails also contain a wide variety of mineral salts. As for the caloric intake, a portion of snails without seasoning (about a dozen) provides just over 80 calories (it contains about 67 for every 10 grams. The same amount of beef provides 214): it is one of the least caloric foods. From the dietary point of view, due to its properties, the snail can be part of the diet of those who suffer from hyper triglyceridemia and hyper cholesterolemia, and it is a valid ingredient also suitable for diets to lose weight or to keep weight under control.

Snails, snails, escargots: the advance of gourmet shellfish – Italian Cuisine

In Abruzzo they are called ciamaiche and are consumed with the grandinjie's pizzas. Needless to say, they are as amazing as they are of humble origins, food of the "cafoni" that we find in Fontamara, poor like them and strongly anchored in the traditions. In Paris, ça va sans dire, they are called escargots and, nomen omen, are among the most refined foods ever. In reality they are always earth snails, refined for a long time and, where they weren't, considered gourmet food even thanks to the versatility and charm of vintage. Finally, in Borgo San Dalmazzo, near Cuneo, there is a fair dedicated to snails. It's called Fiera Fredda and its queen is in particular the Alpine helix pomatia, bred in the foothills area.

All declinations

The most prestigious recipe that concerns them is that of the noble ones escargots à la bourguignonne, but they are also sublime prepared with any type of sauce, from tomato to mushroom sauce, or served with polenta. With butter, parsley, garlic and various sauces, stewed, in tempura: long live the snail and all its variations.

How gourmet is …

Just think that the delicious and refined (in spite of the profession) Vivien / Julia Roberts in the famous Pretty Woman scene set in the gourmet restaurant is grappling with the escargots and the difficult cutlery. In fact, gourmets are more and more crazy about these shellfish that can also be enjoyed in a delicious setting caviar derived from their eggs, not to mention that from them precious burr you can make cosmetics and even, if you wish, a refined strawberry sorbet.

Two numbers

As one of our articles titled Slowly, the snails advance and they advance because they are good, but also because they are eco-friendly thanks to their very low emissions, they can be nourished with vegetable waste and therefore have a beneficial effect on the environment and have a high nutritional value. many high quality protein and minerals, massive doses of B12, low fat and many amino acids and vitamins. So much so that in just 10 years production has increased by 452 percent and Italy alone contributes 10 percent to all world consumption.

The most famous (and valuable) species

Helix aspersa Muller and Helix aspersa Maxima (larger) are the two species of snails typical of the Mediterranean area and, therefore, the most raised. In Sicily, a company biologically raises a new species, the Helix aspersa Muller Madonita, the blessed fruit of a daring cross between native Sicilian snails and French snails.

The rituality of cleaning

Behind their cleaning there is an art, also because it is obviously a delicate moment and a crucial passage, even if not exactly cruelty free.

There are those who leave them in cages for more than a week on an empty stomach, those who put them in a large wicker basket with salad and sawdust to let them out, those who still leave them alive among pieces of bread.

Surprising in all cases (or perhaps not surprising at all) that the snails have crossed centuries and centuries of gastronomic history, slow but inexorable to enrich aristocratic or humble tables.

Witness the great book of French cuisine by Auguste Escoffier, the Artusi, the Cucchiaio d’Argento and even Marco Gavio Apicius, at the turn of the birth of Christ, gastronomist, cook and writer who wrote the De re coquinaria.

Emanuela Di Pasqua,
April 2019

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