Snail pizza

For some reason, I didn't know that pizza didn't have to have tomatoes on it! Apparently the Italians put all sorts of things on a pizza base. Helen Parkins (@A Kentish Kitchen ) made a wonderful pizza with purple sprouting broccoli, fried onions, roquefort, parma ham, some of my snails salt and pepper and fried sage leaves crumbled over the top. It has inspired me to try all sorts of other combinations. Helen suggested black kale, turnip tops or nettle instead of the purple sprouting and I wondered about using small fish like fresh anchovies or something caught in waters around the British Isles like small sardines.

We began our feast with Helen's sobrasada mash which is, as she says, comfort food. The bright pink sausage is combined completely with creamy mash potato and then served with hot buttery snails - a real winner!

Helen suggested treating cooked snails as though they were squid. She showed me a Malaysian recipe for squid which we thought could be adapted. It uses hot red chillies, paprika, shrimp or anchovy paste, garlic and onion, sugar and lime or lemon juice. We didn't have time to try it today but I think it is definitely worth a go.