Snails with Sweet Pepper Sauce (Basque Caracoles a la Vizcaina)

Basques love caracoles, or garden snails, as much as they love caracolillos, or periwinkles. They buy them in net bags, purge them, and then cook and anoint them with amazing sauces. Fortunately, in the United States and Canada you can buy them cleaned and ready to go. All they need is a quick braise. Basques eat snails directly out of the shells: they pick them up with their fingers or with a special instrument at fancy places, suck out the tasty sauce, and use a pick or needle to remove the earthy meat. They then sop up the delicious sauce with chunks of soft baguette. The sauce used is a variation of salsa bizkaína, my favourite thanks to the bacon, onion, chorizo and red pepper flakes it contains. It’s ideal served with snails. This stew is wonderful on its own, but it is also great spooned over polenta or stirred into a simple risotto. Calculate a dozen snails per person and plan on serving them with plenty of bread to sop up the sauce. A note on buying snails: You can buy canned wild Burgundy snails online or at gourmet stores. They usually come in counts of three dozen large snails (5 oz drained) per tin.

2 Spanish onions, cut into small dice
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 bay leaf
sea salt
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups bacon, diced in ⅛" pieces
2 cups dry-cured spicy chorizo, thinly sliced
¼ tsp. red pepper flakes, or ⅛ tsp. ground cayenne pepper
3 cups sweet pepper sauce
1 (15 oz) can snails (drained weight) from about 3 cans, liquid reserved

To Serve:
baguette
Sweet Pepper Sauce (Spanish Salsa Bizkaína)

In a saucepan, combine the onions, oil, bay leaf and ½ tsp. salt and sweat over low heat for about 10 minutes, just until the onions soften. Raise the heat to medium, add the garlic, bacon and cook, stirring occasionally, for 8 minutes, until golden. Add the chorizo, turn down the heat to low and cook for 3 minutes. Add the pepper flakes and the pepper sauce and simmer for 2 minutes. Add the snails and one-third of their liquid, raise the heat to medium and bring to a boil. Turn down the heat to low and braise for about 20 minutes, until the flavours are mingled and the snails are tender but still a little snappy.

Remove the pan from the heat and let the snails rest for 5 minutes. Divide the snails among small bowls and serve with bread and sauce.