I was at Brampton’s butchers in Kemptown, yesterday, and saw some wild rabbit. I couldn’t resist. I love rabbit in all its forms – especially as a sauce for fresh tagliatelle. It’s easy to prepare, and makes a fantastic winter dish.
The rabbits in England are usually sold without their heads, livers, kidneys or hearts – presumably to protect the sensitivities of the English clientele. This is a shame, as there’s loads of flavour in the gory bits…
For the Rabbit Ragù
1 whole rabbit – drawn and skinned
100g pancetta, or streaky bacon
1 medium onion
1 medium carrot
Two stick of celery
Olive oil
2 glasses dry white wine
2 bay leaves
1 tbsp tomato purée
With a heavy knife and a steady hand, chop the rabbit into small pieces.
Peel and finely chop the carrot, onion and celery. Heat the oil in a heavy bottomed saucepan and fry the chopped pancetta or bacon. When pancetta has browned, add the vegetables and sweat them for about 10 minutes. Don’t let them colour. Remove all of this to a bowl.
Back in the saucepan, add some more oil and when it’s nice and hot, brown the rabbit pieces all over.
Add the vegetables back into the pan and heat through.
Add two glasses of dry white wine and boil swiftly to burn off the alcohol.
Season and add two bay leaves and turn the heat right down. Simmer for 2 hours. Leave to cool.
When the stew is cool, transfer the meat to a bowl and pick out all the bones, breaking the meat into small pieces.
With a liquidizer, zap the liquid and vegetables in the saucepan to make a smooth sauce.
Add the rabbit meat back to the saucepan and add 1 tbsp of tomato purée. Cook through for 10 minutes, then taste and adjust the seasoning. If the wine wasn’t dry enough, you may wish to add a tbsp of white wine vinegar to correct the balance, and cook for a further five minutes.
You should now have a delicious rabbit sauce, perfect served on fresh, home made tagliatelle and grated parmesan. Yum!
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