Spaghetti and Periwinkles

This is a simple variation of the Sunday tomato sauce made by my great-grandmother, who would never waste a day at the beach without collecting at least a few mollusks. Although periwinkles were one of her favorites, she also included little necks, razor clams, and mussels in her sauce–essentially any mollusk she could find along the shore. She prepared her meals in a cabán, a screened-in summer kitchen in her yard, surrounded by children and grandchildren. It wouldn’t hurt to have a few assistants of your own to help remove the snails from their shells.

Serves 4 to 6

INGREDIENTS

about 2 cups of periwinkles in shells

3 cloves garlic

1 teaspoon dried parsley

1 tablespoon olive oil

3 cups plum tomatoes from the garden, or a 20 oz. can of imported Italian plum tomatoes

salt and pepper to taste

1 pound spaghetti

grated Parmesan cheese

Italian bread

PREPARATION

Wash the snails in cold water. Add periwinkles to a pot of boiling water, along with a small handful of salt to shrink and toughen the meat. (This eases their removal.) The snails are ready when the operculum falls off.

Remove the periwinkles from their shells with a nutpick or pin. (This can be time consuming, find an assistant if you can.)

Sauté garlic in olive oil. Add parsley and tomatoes, and cook for about 30 minutes.

Boil four quarts of water. Add spaghetti, and remove when soft but still firm to the bite. At the same time that you add the spaghetti, add the periwinkles to the sauce.

Mix the pasta and sauce in a warm bowl. Serve hot, with crusty Italian bread and grated Parmesan cheese.

Species

Periwinkle

First appearing in New England in the 1860s, periwinkles are now found along the coast wherever there’s hard substrate from Labrador to Maryland and along the West Coast.