Ingredients
- 100 snails
- 6 shelled walnuts
- 4 anchovy fillets (canned)
- 3 garlic (cloves)
- 2 thyme sprigs
- 1 basil sprig
- 1 pared orange peel
- 1/2 bay leaf
- 1/2 fatty bacon
- 375 gr trimmed spinach leaves (whole)
- 110 gr pork rind
- 120 ml olive oil
- 24 gr flour
Preparation time 3 hours. Cooking time 2.5 hours. Starve the snails for at least 8 days, then wash them in several changes of water until clean. Rinse with vinegar, then drain. Place the snails in a saucepan of boiling water with the thyme, bay leaf, basil, orange peel and pork rind. When the snails are almost cooked, drain them and remove them from their shells. [I guess boiling them makes it easier to remove them from their shells. --mkm] Brown the snails in olive oil with the fatty bacon, very finely chopped [I assume the author means chop the bacon first. --mkm], the ground walnuts, anchovy fillets, crushed garlic and salt and pepper. Thicken the mixture with the flour, then serve on a bed of spinach. [Make sure you wash all the grit off the spinach first. --mkm] Rose, red or white wines: Tavel, Chusclan, Coteaux d'Aix-en-Provence. [From "Larousse Traditional French Cooking."]