Babbaluci are small land snails boiled and dressed with garlic and parsley, sucked from the shell as street food; Palermo eats them for the Festino di Santa Rosalia in July.

Balarm writes that no Palermitan Festino passes without babbaluci eaten in the street, and that in the old quarters they are sold as street food in the Kalsa, at Ballarò and at the Capo market, where stalls offer them. A Sicilian saying holds that snails to suck and women to kiss never satisfy. The small whitish snail is Theba pisana, common in the provinces of Palermo and Trapani, and it must be purged before cooking because the herbs it eats can be toxic to people. Gaetano Basile wrote a treatise on them in 2006. The Festino runs from 10 to 15 July.

Where to eat Babbaluci in Palermo

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Sicilian Cooking Class★ 5.0 (315)

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Sicilian Cooking Class

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Make it at home

Serves 65 hrIntermediate

Ingredients

  • 1kg small live land snails (Theba pisana or Helix aspersa muller; sold by Italian or Spanish butchers)
  • 200g coarse sea salt (for the purge)
  • 1L white wine vinegar (for the purge)
  • 4 garlic cloves, crushed
  • 1 large bunch flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
  • 60ml extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 tsp black peppercorns, crushed
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 lemon, quartered
  • Toothpicks or sturdy hair pins (to extract from shells)

Method

  1. PURGE THE SNAILS (essential): place the live snails in a large bowl. Sprinkle with 100g coarse salt; cover with a plate weighted down. Let them purge for 2 hours; they expel a lot of mucus.
  2. Rinse the snails in 5 changes of cold water until the water runs clear.
  3. Place in a fresh bowl; cover with the vinegar and 1L cold water. Let stand 30 minutes; they purge any remaining mucus.
  4. Rinse twice more in cold water.
  5. Place the snails in a large pot. Cover with cold water (the snails will emerge from their shells as the water warms; this is normal and desirable).
  6. Bring to a slow simmer. Cook 45 minutes; the snails should emerge fully from shells with bodies relaxed.
  7. Drain. Reserve 200ml of the cooking water.
  8. Heat olive oil in a wide pan. Add crushed garlic; cook 1 minute over medium until fragrant but not coloured.
  9. Add the snails, peppercorns, parsley, salt and reserved cooking water. Toss to coat. Cover; cook 5 more minutes.
  10. Tip into paper cones or small bowls. Serve hot with lemon wedges and toothpicks for extracting the snails from their shells.

Editor tip. The slurp is part of the dish; place the shell to your lips and inhale to draw out the snail and its garlic-parsley juice. Toothpicks work but aren't authentic.

Common allergens: Molluscs.