4 pounds live snails (cleaned and cooked as directed by the fishmonger)

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic
2-3 anchovies
6 fresh tomatoes, seeded and peeled
Salt and "lots" of pepper
1 whole red pepper
1 mint leaf

Saute the garlic in the olive oil.

Crush the anchovies until they are a bit pasty and then add them to the olive oil.

Add the seeded and peeled tomatoes, 1 whole red pepper and the mint leaf.

Cook over low heat for five minutes or so.

Add the nicely cleaned and cooked snails to the sauce and continue cooking for another half hour.

Serve warm.

The recipe, "Snails," was taken from Alexander Lenard's cookbook, "The Fine Art of Roman Cooking." The cookbook was published in 1963 and is now out of print. The author, a German chef, who went to Rome to study the city's cookery, states in his book that this dish (Snails) was served throughout the city of Rome on the Feast Day of Saint John the Baptist. Apparently, in the late 1950s (when the author was there) on San Giovanni's feast day vast crowds of native-born Romans first went to the Church of St. John Lateran and then headed for the local "osterie and trattorie" where they feasted on snails. After that they took in processions, fireworks and music. But the author insists that "...when all is said and done it is the snails that give the Feast of San Giovanni its true character." Digital Image ID: NYPL, Digital Gallery, # 102288.

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