Subject: RECIPE: Snail (uh, I mean Escargot) Pizza
From: [email-masked] (Brian Reid)
Date: 7 Dec 85 06:54:43 GMT
Newsgroups: mod.recipes

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.RH MOD.RECIPES-SOURCE SNAIL-PIZZA M "23 Nov 85" 1986
.RZ "ESCARGOT AND CHANTERELLE PIZZA" "A pizza-like dish smothered in escargot and mushrooms"
I was recently at a potluck party where everyone was asked to bring an
interpretation of ``French pizza''\(emof what pizza would have tasted like
if it had been invented in Rennes instead of in Naples. I concocted this
dish for the occasion, and it was a success.
If you aren't sure you like escargot, this is not the
dish to experiment with!
.IH "1 large pizza"
.IG "1 recipe" "French bread dough"
(Craig Claiborne's French bread recipe works well.)
.IG "10 oz" "small French snails" "300 g"
(The smaller the better. Burgundy snails taste best to me.)
.IG "2 oz" "dried chanterelle mushrooms" "50 g"
.IG "1.5 lbs." "raclette cheese" "700 g"
(shredded).
.IG "8 oz" "tomato sauce" "250 ml"
.IG "2 cloves" "fresh garlic"
.IG "2 Tbsp" "fresh parsley" "30 ml"
.IG "1/2 lb" "butter" "220 g"
.PH
.SK 1
Make the French Bread dough recipe at least 1 day beforehand
if you can. Roll the dough out into the shape of a pizza, put
it on a pizza pan,and set it aside. It will keep in the refrigerator
overnight.
.SK 2
Preheat the oven to
.TE 425 220 .
Prepare the dried mushrooms according to published recipes (soak, wash,
cut, resoak, wash, drain).
.SK 3
If the snails are too large (larger than a garlic clove), then cut them in
pieces. Drain the snails well.
Melt the butter in a baking dish, add the snails, crushed
garlic, 
.AB "\(12 tsp" "2.5 ml"
salt, and ground black pepper to taste.
.SK 4
Put the bread-dough pan on the top rack of the oven and the
snails on the bottom rack of the oven, and cook them both 
in the preheated oven for 10 minutes. Take them out, and drain the cooking
butter from the snails.
.SK 5
Spread the tomato sauce in an even
layer on the bread, then sprinkle the Raclette cheese over it.
Add the snails, and then the mushrooms. Sprinkle with fresh
parmesan cheese, salt, and pepper.
.SK 6
Bake at
.TE 425 220
in the top rack for 12 minutes (bottom rack will burn the crust).
.NX
The first time I made this recipe I made it with morel mushrooms. Their
flavor overwhelmed even the garlic snails. It was good, but it didn't have
the balance I was looking for. Chanterelles seem to fit better.
If you're unable to find or afford chanterelles, you can substitute
Chinese straw mushrooms, which are available in cans wherever Chinese
groceries are sold. European dried mushrooms seem always to have rocks and
dirt in them; Asian dried mushrooms never do. I guess the Asians wash them
better before they dry them. It's impossible to get 
.I all
of the rocks out.
.PP
Raclette cheese is so much better than any other kind of cheese in this
recipe that it is worth looking for.
If you absolutely cannot get it, use fondue cheese or a Gruyere.
.PP
Raw butter also tastes more ``authentic'' in this recipe. What you really
want to use is Normandy butter, but it's hard to get in North America.
Alta Dena raw butter is available in California; it makes a noticeable
difference in the flavor of the escargot. I don't know of any other states in
which it is legal to buy raw butter.
.SH RATING
.I Difficulty:
easy to moderate.
.I Time:
30 minutes.
.I Precision:
approximate measurement OK.
.WR
Brian Reid
DEC Western Research Laboratory, Palo Alto CA
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