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Recipe · 3 min read

Arroz con Conejo y Caracoles Catalán

Catalan rice with rabbit and snails

Arròs amb Conill i Cargols

Seco · dry Cooked in Clay casserole Catalonia

⚠️ Source-confidence note: the recipe is from the Diputació de Barcelona's Menja saludable recipe card. Catalan town-by-town variations are not documented in the sources found. The variations listed are general cross-regional comparisons, not Catalan sub-regional ones.

01Geographic & Texture Profile

  • Primary Geographic Zone: Inland Catalonia (Barcelona province and the interior comarques).
  • Liquid & Texture Profile: Seco (dry). Cooked 18–20 min "a foc viu" in a cassola and rested before serving.
  • Traditional Cooking Vessel & Fuel: A cassola (earthenware casserole) over gas or wood.

02Historical & Cultural Context

Rabbit and snails is a rice combination shared across eastern Spain's dry interiors, from the Alicante serrana rice to Aragón. The Catalan version stands out for three things: it is made in a cassola rather than a paella, it includes green beans (mongeta tendra), and it uses nyora (ñora) together with green pepper in the sofregit. That last detail is a south-eastern touch that has reached the Barcelona public-health recipe card. Catalonia's snail culture (cargolades, the Lleida Aplec del Caragol) supplies the four dozen snails the recipe calls for.

Culinary science: the snails are started in cold water over low heat so they emerge from their shells before dying. Any that stay closed are discarded, which is a simple freshness test. The rabbit is browned first and removed, so the sofregit fries in rabbit-flavoured oil.

03Local Town-by-Town Variations

  • Diputació de Barcelona version (documented): Rabbit, 4 dozen snails, nyora, green pepper, green beans, Bomba rice, saffron.
  • ⚠️ Catalan sub-regional variants (Lleida, Empordà, Penedès) are undocumented here. Compare the Lleida-Pyrenees arròs de muntanya.

04The Master Recipe (4-Person Batch Blueprint)

Variant represented: Diputació de Barcelona.

The Flavor Base (El Fondo)

Ingredient Quantity
Rabbit, small pieces, salted & peppered 1
Clean snails (cargols nets) 4 dozen
Extra-virgin olive oil 80 ml
Garlic 2 cloves
Ripe tomatoes, grated, skinless 2
Nyora (ñora), flesh 1
Green pepper ½
Green beans (mongeta tendra), in pieces 200 g
Saffron pinch

Assembly Ratios

Element Quantity
Bomba rice 400 g
Water ≈ 1.2–1.3 L (≈ 3 : 1 for Bomba) ⚠️ the source says only "aigua"

Step-by-Step Cooking Blueprint

  1. Snails: Put them in cold water over low heat until they come out of their shells, then set aside. Discard any that don't.
  2. Rabbit: Brown it in the cassola oil and remove it.
  3. Sofregit: In the same oil, fry the garlic, then the tomato, green pepper and nyora flesh for a few minutes.
  4. Rice: Add the rice and toast it. Add the water and stir, then add the snails, rabbit, green beans and saffron.
  5. Fire: Cook 18–20 min "a foc viu" (on a lively flame), then correct the salt.
  6. Rest: A few minutes before serving.

Rabbit & snail rices: Rabbit, mountain snails (serranas/vaquetas) and herbs, mostly seco over a hot wood fire.