Escargot And Chanterelle Pizza

INGREDIENTS

INSTRUCTIONS

Make the French Bread dough recipe at least 1 day beforehand if you
can. Roll the dough out into the shape of a pizza, put it on a pizza
pan,and set it aside. It will keep in the refrigerator overnight.
Prepare the dried mushrooms according to published recipes (soak,
wash, cut, resoak, wash, drain).  If the snails are too large (larger
than a garlic clove), then cut  them in pieces.  Drain the snails well.
Melt the butter in a baking  dish, add the snails, crushed garlic,
about 1/2 salt and ground black  pepper to taste.  Put the bread-dough
pan on the top rack of the oven and the snails on  the bottom rack of
the oven, and cook them both for 10 minutes. Take  them out.  Spread
the tomato sauce in an even layer on the bread, then sprinkle  the
Raclette cheese over it.  Add the snails, and then the mushrooms.
Sprinkle with fresh parmesan cheese, salt and pepper. Bake at 425
degrees F. in the top rack for 12 minutes (bottom rack will burn the
crust).  NOTES    A pizza-like dish smothered in escargot and mushrooms
-- I was  recently at a potluck party where everyone was asked to bring
an  interpretation of "French pizza," what pizza would have tasted like
if it had been invented in Rennes instead of in Naples. I concocted
this dish for the occasion, and it was a success. If you aren't sure
you like escargot, this is not the dish to experiment with! Yield: 1
large pizza.    The first time I made this recipe I made it with morel
mushrooms.  Their flavor overwhelmed even the garlic snails. It was
good, but it  didn't have the balance I was looking for. Chanterelles
seem to fit  better. If you're unable to find or afford chanterelles,
you can  substitute Chinese straw mushrooms, which are available in
cans  wherever Chinese groceries are sold. European dried mushrooms
seem  always to have rocks and dirt in them; Asian dried mushrooms
never  do.  I guess the Asians wash them better before they dry them.
It's  impossible to get all of the rocks out.    Raclette cheese is so
much better than any other kind of cheese in  this recipe that it is
worth looking for. If you absolutely cannot  get it, use fondue cheese
or a Gruyere.    Raw butter also tastes more "authentic" in this
recipe. What you  really want to use is Normandy butter, but it's hard
to get in North  America. Alta Dena raw butter is available in
California; it makes a  noticeable difference in the flavor of the
escargot. I don't know of  any other states in which it is legal to buy
raw butter.  : Difficulty:  easy to moderate.  : Time:  30 minutes.  :
Precision:  approximate measurement OK.  : Brian Reid  : DEC Western
Research Laboratory, Palo Alto CA  : reid@decwrl.DEC.COM    -or-
{ihnp4,ucbvax,decvax,sun,pyramid}!decwrl!reid  : Copyright (C) 1986
USENET Community Trust  From Gemini's MASSIVE MealMaster collection at
www.synapse.com/~gemini

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