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Escargot & Chanterelle Pizza

Category: Main Course

Author: The Savvybearcat

Date: 1/1/2007

Rating:

(3.0) by 2 users

Ingredients:

1 each French bread dough (Craig Claiborne's French bread recipe works well)
10 oz French snails (the smaller the better, burgundy snails taste best to me)
2 oz Chanterelle mushrooms, dried
1 1/2 lb Raclette cheese, shredded
8 oz Tomato sauce
2 Garlic cloves
2 tbsp Parsley, fresh
1/2 lb Butter

Instructions:

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.

Prepare the dried mushrooms according to published recipes (soak,
wash, cut, resoak, wash, drain).

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, about 1/2 salt and ground black
pepper to taste.

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 for 10 minutes. Take
them out.

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. Bake at 425
degrees F. in the top rack for 12 minutes (bottom rack will burn the
crust).

NOTES:

* 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," 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! Yield: 1
large pizza.

* 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 all of the rocks out.

* 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.

* 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.

: Difficulty: easy to moderate.
: Time: 30 minutes.
: Precision: approximate measurement OK.

: Brian Reid
: DEC Western Research Laboratory, Palo Alto CA
: reid@decwrl.DEC.COM -or-
{ihnp4,ucbvax,decvax,sun,pyramid}!decwrl!reid

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