Escargots, But Make It Pasta … Or Toast: Spilled Milk #137

Garlic-buttery goodness — with no tiny tongs or forks necessary.

Everyone loves escargots à la Bourguignonne: helix snails (the wild ones are predominantly from Burgundy) with butter, parsley and garlic. And even kids love it. Why? because it’s achingly delicious, the snails are briny, earthy as a forest floor and very sweet.

And there is garlic butter to dunk in too. Dunk bread, or just dunk your face — it’s that good, and we all know it. The vegetal bitter quality of the parsley transforms the garlic. It’s the perfect counterpoint, a softener, to the assertive allium.

Put the dish on any restaurant menu, and it’s having another renaissance as younger chefs are discovering the myriad ways to work with snails, and it’s always a very popular dish.

But here is the problem. Those little stainless steel or ceramic presentation plates only have six holes, and while many chefs place herbs and rock salt down in a small chafer, and then place the snails into shells with compound butter before baking, there are only so many you can fit. If the snails are stuffed into shells, you need those beautiful snail tongs and a snail fork to retrieve them. Total pain in the ass.

So why not solve all your problems by making this classic French dish, but sauté the snails and dress them over angel hair pasta?  Or eat them as a tartine?

That’s how I do it at home — I started a few years ago and never looked back. BTW, my snail status is so legendary my friends gifted me with this amazing snail fork set one year ago as a gift. All of them are originals from master silversmiths, including Louis C Tiffany. One of the coolest things I own. I have big-time snail cred!

Eight snail forks dating back to 1828! The last two are 19th-century L.C. Tiffany pieces. This was a gift from my friend Will Guidara, who really knows how to be unreasonably hospitable.

So here is the recipe:

I make the sauce and then toss it with angel hair pasta or serve it over toast. (Sometimes I do both.) Either way, you will be in garlic-butter heaven, and your family will thank you.

Make a compound butter with 2 sticks soft butter blended with minced shallots, garlic, herbs, lemon zest and some lemon juice.

Keep that in the fridge for many uses, from broiling fish to meats and veg, enriching sauces and so on. (Always keep compound butter on hand. It’s a life-saver.)

Make some parsley sauce by puréeing one stick of melted butter with two handfuls of parsley, some chopped scallion greens, four garlic cloves and a quarter cup of very hot white wine. I place the wine in the microwave — very easy that way. Set it aside.

Take a few tablespoons of the compound butter and cook the snails in a medium sauté pan over medium heat. Use some pasta water or tap water if you need to loosen the mixture in your pan. (Water is your friend when you are cooking.)

When hot, I season the snails well and add about four tablespoons of parsley sauce. Swirl the pan to coat the snails and heat the sauce, you want to eliminate the hot raw garlic flavor and accentuate the sweet cooked garlic flavor while keeping the sauce nice and bright. Plate on toast or toss a portion of pasta in it or both. I usually count on 12 extra large snails per person. XLs are about 24 pieces per 8oz tin.

Escargots, but make it better. Words to live by.