Ivan Tronci, Foodismo’s resident chef, straight from Otranto, has decided to delight us once again, with a fantastic earthy dish from the great tradition: the Snail of Salento.
Yes, you got it right, a snail dish or escargot (escargots in plural, in French).
You don’t have to turn up your nose because, from the heart of the Salento countryside, where I am at this very moment, I had to define the main ingredient in Italian and in French, to give those who are not from Salento the chance to understand the object of contention: we are talking to you about ciambrucheddhru, murrune, municeddha (municeddha is the same thing) aka snails, snails with the shell to be clear.
Municeddha, ciambrucheddhri, murruni: different ways of referring to the snail
We will not dwell on talking about the malacological aspects (Malacology is the branch of zoology that studies mollusks through in-depth examination of the carapaces or shells) of this traditional Salento ingredient. We will talk about this later, in the “Discover Salento” section .
Now it is important to define, in principle, why we call the snail “municeddha” (or munuiceddhra).
The color of the shell and the fleshy brown body strongly recall the color of the monks’ habit (municeddhru in dialect, little monk in Italian).
This type of snails, Helix Aperta, have recently been used in Salento, by the University of the same name, for a study on environmental pollution.
At Foodismo, we care about the environment and the territory only that, here, we will not dwell overmuch on these hot topics because we will tell you about the Salento snail, queen of our recipe today and widespread in all countries bordering the Mediterranean.
Salento snail: Ivan Tronci and his childhood memories
Our chef Ivan Tronci is linked to this recipe by very sweet memories.
He was 10 years old and, together with his grandmother, he used to go hunting for municeddhe in the home garden (which we were lucky enough to visit, where you can find all the first fruits of the season), wandering around barefoot on the red earth.
The first time he had one in his hands, he was enraptured by the beauty and elegance of these cute mollusks. He enjoyed making them fit back into their shells and watching them move on his hand.
This memory of his, stimulated in us the desire to want to tell about this traditional Salento dish…et voila, here for you is the revisited classic recipe for Salento municeddha.
Get the ingredients from Ivan Tronci and read the process on preparing this magnificent dish.
If you want to challenge our chef, use the hastag #foodismo on Instagram and tag @foodismoit.
Ingredients of Salento municeddhra: the traditional dish revisited
You need to get the same ingredients:
- Land snails
- Dry white wine
- Bay leaves
- Oregano
- Parsley
- Chili pepper
- San Marzano tomatoes PDO
- Peeled tomatoes
- Iodized salt
- Salento EVO oil
- 5-pepper powder: black pepper, pink pepper, Sichuan pepper, long pepper, green pepper.
If you are in possession of a home garden, get your own snails. If not, rely on a trusted vegetable grower. Ideally, you should turn to a farmer who cultivates his land organically.
Procedure for preparing Salento snail: follow Ivan Tronci’s advice and you will amaze your guests in the kitchen
Blanch the snails in plenty of salted water and chop the fresh cherry tomatoes that will be used later.
Separately, on another fire over a moderate flame, use a cooking rondon in which you will make a sauté as follows: pour in a little Evo oil and put in a bay leaf, a little chili pepper and then blend everything with dry white wine.
When it comes time for the wine, you will turn up the flame of your fire for a few seconds, just enough time to facilitate the evaporation of the alcohol.
You will add the previously chopped fresh tomatoes and leave them to cook for about 10 minutes.
After this short time has elapsed, you will add the peeled tomatoes and oregano in that order.
When the sauce is well amalgamated, we will add the snails that we previously blanched in the pot and let them cook for another fifteen minutes or so gently, over a low flame.
At the moment of serving, you will shell the snails, baste them with a little sauce and garnish everything with the powder of the five peppers and parsley leaves.
Chef Ivan Tronci is pleased to reveal a couple of tricks to delight your guests’ palates
Important is the preparation of the soffritto and the choice of white wine, which must be dry and have an important taste. For the recipe we used a wine from Leverano (near Porto Cesareo), Malvasia Bianca DOC. As a substitute, you can also use a Chardonnay dell’Alto Salento or a Salice Salentino Pinot Bianco DOC.
Fundamental is the use of the five-pepper powder and, dulcis in fundo, the implantation: you must serve the snails already shucked and harmoniously placed inside your dish.
You can use the snails’ carapaces, to garnish and embellish the dish.
