Wine Garden Snails with Spicy Vegetable Sauce

Ingredients

• 48 wine garden snails
• Salt
• 1 Carrot
• 3 onions
• 2 stalks Parsley
• 3 stalks thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• 200 ml red wine
• 2 red bell peppers
• 4 tomatoes
• 4 Garlic cloves
• 2 tbsp shelled almonds
• 2 tbsp shelled hazelnuts
• 1 red chili pepper
• 1 slice white bread
• 1 tbsp wine vinegar
• 100 ml red wine
• 4 tbsp olive oil
• 4 tbsp tomato juice
• Salt
• black pepper (freshly ground)

Instructions

1. 1.

   Place the fresh snails in cold salted water and let rest for 1 hour. Rinse carefully with warm water, then transfer to boiling water and simmer for 30 minutes. Drain, gently remove from shells, and discard the tail end of each snail.

2. 2.

   Peel and finely dice the carrot and one onion. Rinse parsley and thyme, combine with the vegetables, bay leaf, and 500 ml water in a pot and bring to a boil. Add the snails and simmer just below boiling point for about 3 hours.

3. 3.

   In the meantime, clean the shells carefully.

4. 4.

   Wash, halve, de-seed, and chop the bell peppers. Wash tomatoes, cut off stems, slice into rounds. Spread peppers and tomato slices on parchment paper-lined tray, bake at 120°C fan-forced until slightly dried for about 1 hour. During the last 30 minutes add peeled garlic cloves with skins to the tray. Remove from oven and let cool.

5. 5.

   Roast almonds and hazelnuts in a hot pan until fragrant. Remove and cool. Wash, de-seed, and chop chili pepper. Dice white bread. Peel garlic and combine all prepared ingredients, vinegar, wine, olive oil, and tomato juice; blend into a smooth sauce. Season with salt and pepper.

6. 6.

   Remove snails from stock and refill each shell with a snail. Peel remaining onions, finely dice, and sauté in a large hot pan with oil until translucent. Deglaze with wine, add the snails, cover, and heat for about 10 minutes. Adjust sauce, let it warm, taste, and serve.