CASSOLA
DE TROS DE L'URGELL
Ingredients:
Snails: 3/4 kg., 1 kg meat of your choice: rabbit,
pig's trotters, pork chops, llonganissa (local salami-type sausage),
1 large onion, 3 to 4 tomatoes, 1/2 head of garlic, salt, a handful
of spinach (about 1/2 kg) and 4 potatoes.
Wash the snails well
in the usual way. Bring them to the boil, without overcooking them.
Strain and put to one side. Place an earthenware casserole with
a good drizzle of oil onto the heat and lightly cook the salted
rabbit (diced), pig's trotters and pork chops. Remove them from
the dish and use the same oil to make the tomato sauce by adding
sliced onion, the chopped garlic and, when it is translucent, the
grated tomato. Add the meat that you had put to one side and pour
in a ladleful of water. Cover the dish and let it cook for ten
minutes. Then, put in the snails, the diced potatoes and the washed
spinach. Add salt and water to cover and leave it to cook on a
low heat, covered, for about twenty minutes. The dish should be
succulent but without too much liquid.
This dish can be cooked
in several different ways:
-when making the sauce, the tomato may
be replaced by green and red peppers.
-some prefer to add a mixture
of chopped garlic and almonds when it is nearly cooked.
-in some
areas, to bind the dish, beaten eggs are poured in about ten minutes
before it has finished cooking.
-nowadays, some people add a dash
of cooking sherry or brandy, or a herb such as bay or thyme.
