Snails in mushroom heads in white wine sauce

Ingredients for 6 servings:

• 24 snails, vineyard snails or large agate snails
• 24 large mushrooms (possibly 12 brown and 12 white)
• 1 onion(s)
• 2 garlic cloves
• 250 ml broth *
• 750 ml white wine, dry (may be dusty)
• 8 tbsp tomatoes (pizza tomatoes with some tomato sauce)
• 1 tbsp parsley, very finely chopped
• 8 basil leaves, finely picked
• 250 g homemade herb butter
• Salt
• Pepper, black, adM
• olive oil

Instructions

Working time approx. 1 hour; Cooking/baking time approx. 20 minutes; Total time approx. 1 hour 20 minutes

great starter

* I used homemade beef broth with a high vegetable content from my own stock, otherwise please use the recipe from DB, it should have plenty of substance. Clean the mushrooms and remove the stems. The heads should have a large cavity for the snails. Finely chop the stems. Finely chop the onion and garlic cloves and sweat them in a little olive oil until translucent, deglaze with the broth and white wine, add the finely chopped mushroom stalks and the herbs, bring to a boil, and season with salt and pepper. The whole thing should still have a slightly sweet flavor. Reduce the heat for about 30 minutes (it’s okay to lose 1/3 of the liquid), adding the pizza tomatoes halfway through. In the meantime, fill the mushroom heads with herb butter and carefully press a snail into each head. Brush the snails on top with the remaining herb butter. Pour the broth into a large baking dish, covering the bottom by about 1 cm. Place the mushrooms and snails in the broth, adding a little more liquid if necessary. Be careful: the heads shouldn’t float, as they might tip over. Return the whole thing to the oven for another 20 minutes (160 degrees Celsius bottom heat in my gas oven); the mushrooms should still be firm to the bite. Serve with a nice baguette, and soak up the broth with the baguette while you destroy the mushrooms and snails. The broth can be thickened slightly to taste. If you don’t like snails at all, you can also use minced meat (prepared as for meatballs) or mussels.