Gourmet Snails: The Food of the Future?

When you visit the land of Barolo in Piemonte, red wines, prized white truffles and hazelnuts (home to Nutella) might come to mind. What you wouldn't expect to find though is gourmet snails! Surprisingly, since the 1970s, the town of Cherasco within the Barolo appellation has become famous for their lumache. They hold an annual snail festival and you can find snails at every restaurant in town. 

Snail Festival in Cherasco
Image | Anna Savino

Paolo Bove, a young man with a passion for sustainable farming and snails, has started his own business to spread the word about their benefits. Aside from organically growing all his own vegetables to feed them, he also allows them to follow their normal life-cycle and purge naturally. He then goes one step further and has them cleaned, pre-cooked and jarred. Paolo believes that if the product is ready to go, chefs and private consumers will be more likely to prepare this delicacy more often. Once people familiarize themselves with eating snails and understand the health benefits, he thinks this will be the  “superfood of the future”!

Snails slowly moving in their snail bed
Image | Anna Savino

Why is it a superfood?

Snails have an incredibly high protein content with hardly any fat at all. They are full of minerals and help lower cholesterol. There is no impact on the environment by breeding them in their open-air snail beds either. 

Not only are they great for your health, but their bava (secretion or mucin) has special properties that, when used in cosmetics, can do wonders for your skin. In fact, Paolo just released a line of skin care products based on his snails' serum! If you knew how old he was, this would be proof in itself of its magical properties. 

Snails in their crates, naturally purging
Image | Anna Savino

Pre-cooked Snails

Paolo is selling his precious snails in two ways: plain and also with olive oil, garlic and parsley. You can do just about anything with the plain snails, like batter and fry them or use them as a ragu sauce for pasta. The “green” snail jar is ready to go as an easy appetizer. All you need to do is pour the contents into a pan and heat up before serving. The options are endless for using these—local Michelin star chefs have become big fans of Paolo's snails. His attention to detail and expertise give the consumer a product that is crunchy yet tender, not at all being chewy. So let's see how courageous you would be! Would you give these a try?

Paolo’s jarred snails
Image | Anna Savino

You can watch a video that Lisa Anderson from Lisa's Dolce Italia and I did while visiting the snail farm here.

And if you’re interested in purchasing Paolo Bova Gourmet Snails (2-4 pp servings per jar) please contact us for details: info@barolowineclub.com