Lumache Marinara -- Sailor-Style Tomato Sauce with Snails

Instructions

Brown garlic in oil, add tomatoes, parsley, basil, salt and pepper and cook over medium-low heat for 30 minutes, stirring frequently. Add the oregano and tomato paste; cook for 20 minutes. If sauce starts to thicken up, add a 1/2 cup of water, a little at a time, until the correct consistency is attained. Cook sauce for about 1 to 1-1/2 hours. Marinara sauce should be to the thinner side, not like the other tomato sauces.

Meanwhile, break up the chopped tomato as much as you can. About 20-25 minutes before the sauce is complete, add the snails, all at once. Increase the heat beyond simmer when the snails are added and keep the sauce just below the boiling point. Stir the snails occasionally during that time.

Serve in bowls with picks for the snails, and crusty bread to sop up the marinara sauce.

Author's Comments

There was many a summer month that I sat in the driveway of our neighbors, the Campagninos, eating my fill of Babbaluci! I can really remember those times, smelling the “gravy” being prepared, watching a basket of snails being poured into the extremely large pot, and then . . . eating those tasty morsels . . . and sopping up the sauce with crusty Italian bread usually bought that morning at Lacastri’s Bakery . . . what bread!!!

By the way, Babbaluci is Sicilian slang for Snails or Escargot!

Taken from my cookbook: The "Old Country" Italian Cookbook, by Donald J.P. La Marca

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