Municeddhe Salento: the traditional recipe
The Salento countryside abounds in many natural products that can be found in the wild, asparagus, various types of herbs including chicory, fennel, beard, many types of mushrooms and one of the delicacies of traditional Salento cuisine, the Municeddhe.
These are the snails that abound in the countryside and are generally collected in the summer season after the rains, from July to September, when the snail has built a kind of white cap around the opening, which in dialect is called “panna” (cream).
The singular name given to the snails derives from their color, which recalls the color of the habit of the Franciscan friars.
It was once available in almost all markets and fruit and vegetable shops although it seems that in recent times its presence has decreased, and this is due to two factors: the first concerns the fact that fewer and fewer people venture into in the countryside to collect them, the second reason is due to the increasingly widespread plowing of the fields carried out with mechanical means, which in some cases compromises their habitat and therefore their survival.
They are tasty prepared in different ways, roasted, boiled or cooked in sauce, accompanied with durum wheat bread. In Salento they have always been eaten in quantity, in Cannole, a municipality in the Otranto hinterland, a summer festival is dedicated to them which over four days brings together crowds of people who handle toothpicks in front of pots and embers which churn out thousands and thousands of municeddhe from serve and eat during performances of Salento popular music.
The recipe for Salento Municeddhe:
Ingredients for 4 or 6 people:
- 1 kg of monicedde mussels
- an onion
- a glass of rosé wine
- 3 bay leaves
- pepper as needed.
- extra virgin olive oil to taste
- Salt to taste.
Preparation
Preparation time: an hour and a half.
- Wash the snails repeatedly, remove the so-called cream (i.e. the foam that protects the shell mentioned above), rinse them again.
- In a pan, place half a glass of oil, the sliced onion and the bay leaves. When the onion is bruised, pour in the mussels, salt them, flavor them with freshly ground black pepper and when the liquid from the mussels has evaporated, add the rosé wine.
- Dry over high heat and serve.
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