If you want limpets, you have to get wet!

Summer is coming and with it, times to be closer to the sea, eating on terraces, fried fish, white wine… and we cannot forget that the limpet season is also here.

You know, as the Canarian saying goes: “Those who wants limpets have to wet his ass.”

In the Canary Islands, the two periods in which the limpet is allowed to be collected are established, corresponding to the months of May-June, October and November of each year.

A long time ago in the Canary Islands we could find quite a few species of Lapas, although now we can barely differentiate 4 species:

Black-footed limpet (Patella tenuis crenata), white-footed limpet (Patella ulyssiponensis aspera), curvina limpet (Patella piperata) and sun or majorera limpet (Patella candei).

Its main characteristic is to have a shell as a shield, a kind of “Chinese hat”, with bilateral symmetry and covering the body of these molluscs in its entirety.

Well, many times we are not aware of what species we are served at the time of eating, but this tradition dates back to the time of the aborigines.

Where to eat limpets? or, How to prepare limpets?

Today you could find a thousand ways to eat them, but I prefer the classic. In a good rice or in an exquisite fish soup.

To prepare some grilled limpets with green mojo, a classic, basically you have to put them on an iron plate, pour the mojo over them and put them on the fire until the meat separates from the shell, something that takes a few minutes. .

Along with their gastronomic and cultural potential, limpets are an excellent source of high-quality protein and a simple way to meet the needs for zinc and other micronutrients that are sometimes insufficient in a diet with a high presence of processed foods.

You like them?

What do you think if we meet for a plate of limpets and a glass of white wine from the land…