Escargots à la Bourguignonne. Is there anything more French than escargot? In this classic dish from Burgundy, the snails are really just a vehicle for the delicious garlic and herb butter, so ensure you have plenty of crusty bread to soak it all up. Ideally you’ll have special snail plates and tongs – they aren’t essential but do add to the sense of theatre. Use toothpicks to extract the snails from their shells if you don’t have small cocktail forks. This is a great start to a dinner party as the shells can be filled ahead of time and refrigerated until ready to serve; remove them from the fridge to come to room temperature about 30 minutes before putting them into the oven. Add a classic French green salad (see video below) to turn this recipe into a supper or light meal for two. As this is a Burgundian dish, a white Burgundy like Louis Latour Mâcon-Villages Chameroy is an ideal wine pairing.
Serves 4 as a starter
This is one occasion where you can waive the general rule about only cooking with wine you’d be prepared to drink; as the wine is simply used to soak the snails and is then discarded, any inexpensive dry white wine will suffice, as long as it isn’t faulty.
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Before using purchased snail shells for the first time, submerge them in a sink of very hot water with a little detergent. When cool, drain them, rinse thoroughly and set aside on a draining rack to dry, giving them a bit of shake to dislodge any remaining water.
Yes, snail shells can be used multiple times if they’re cleaned and stored properly after each use. Find details on how to clean them here.
