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X X List of Italian Feast Day Dishes
St. John the Baptist -- Meals -- Snails
Originated from: Rome, Lazio, Italy
Occasion: The Feast of Saint John the Baptist (June 24th)
Contributed by: Image courtesy of The New York Public Library, Digital Gallery #102288

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Ingredients

For recipe see Italy Revisited/Recipes/"Italian Fish and Sea Food Dishes"



Directions




Notes

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."

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