Back to a topic dear to my heart. Rabbit!
Sooner or later, I will convince one of you to try rabbit. Anne, from Mud Splattered Boots, is the only other advocate I have come across.
I have convinced Maus. At first, she would screw up her nose at the suggestion of rabbit but, slowly, she is being won over. After she ate the subject of tonight’s post, she said it was nice. The next night, I didn’t have an opportunity to cook anything so it was rabbit, again, and I received no complaints.
This is a very simple dish. It, basically, requires that the rabbit be browned and then cooked in white wine. A while ago, I made Coniglio in Agro-dolce which is, essentially, rabbit cooked in red wine, with the addition of vinegar, sultanas and pine nuts. I was not so impressed with that recipe. This one, however, is simple and very enjoyable.
The only issue I found with the recipe: How much is ‘2 glasses of dry white wine’? I was thinking 200 mils but Maus thought more. I put in 200 mils, then a couple more very decent slugs and it may have been a bit over the top. I ended up with a little too much fluid.
This recipe is from Carluccio’s Complete Italian Food by Antonio and Priscilla Carluccio.
Ingredients:
- 1 rabbit, cut into 8-10 pieces.
- flour, for dusting
- olive oil
- 1 large onion, thinly sliced
- 1 garlic clove, chopped
- 1 rosemary sprig
- a few sage leaves
- a few small thyme sprigs
- 2 glasses dry white wine (I would start with 200mils and see how you go)
- 120 mils of tomato pulp
- 100g black olives (I know mine aren’t black. I always use whatever I have open)
- salt & pepper
Method:
- Wash and pat dry the rabbit pieces. Dust them with flour.
- Heat the olive oil in a large casserole dish and brown the rabbit on all sides. Set aside.
- Deglaze the pan with a bit of water and then add the onion, garlic and herbs. Reduce the heat and cook until the onions are translucent and softened.
- Stir in the wine and let it bubble to allow some of the alcohol to evaporate.
- Add the tomato pulp and seasoning.
- Add back the rabbit pieces. Cover the dish.
- Cook over a medium heat for 1½ hours or until the rabbit is tender. If you don’t have enough fluid, add a bit more wine or water or, better still, if you have some handy, stock. If you have too much fluid, let it simmer for awhile without a lid.
- Add the olives and adjust the seasoning to taste.
- Decorate with some extra herbs, if desired.
Passion Fruit Garden 
It will be me you convince, as really I already am I just haven’t happened across rabbit meat, but I will have to convince the G.O., who has eaten it in the distant past but was underwhelmed… goodness knows the circumstances in which he was dining, and the cooking method. However, the combination of white wine and olives (of any colour) looks delicious.
Ella tell the GO that he probably had wild rabbit, farmed rabbit is much milder. Any real butcher would sell them.
I’ve never tried rabbit before & it would be just about impossible to get over here unless you were a hunter. I guess too many people (myself included had little fluffy bunnies as pets). I remember my husband long ago used to go hunting with his father out in the Berkshires & brought back a rabbit for his Italian aunt to cook up – there’s something about a particular vein or organ that has to be removed from a fresh rabbit to ensure that you don’t kill anyone. In any case, I guess the mighty hunters got a little too carried about and the rabbit they brought her was so full of pellets that she told them it wasn’t worth trying to pick all of the lead out of it. They probably just had lasagna that night.
Oh Diane, you make me laugh 🙂
Yum!! I shouldn’t read your blog before dinner, wish I had your rabbit stew instead of what I am making!
Hi Smarmila, I bet you are having something equally yummy 🙂
Somehow I missed this post. We do like rabbit but I’ve never been very happy with my attempts to cook it. Perhaps it’s time to try again….
Hi Sandra, I think the Mrs Beetson recipe is the best I have tried. Try it.
Ha, the rabbit subject again – is my memory again failing me, or did we have a past conversation about the rabbit overruns in both Australia and Oregon (ours were jackrabbits about the turn of the last century – many millions)? Surely, there are still wild rabbits to be had in the Outback. Yes? We certainly still have them here, although there is no commercial market for them – but if you want some, they can be had by going out hunting for them.
Hi Doc, We have rabbits galore here. Every time I drive up my driveway I am greeted by the buggers. They are a major problem. When I was a kid butchers sold wild rabbits but now they only sell farmed rabbits. I presume because we have introduced the myxomatosis and calici viruses and there is no guarantee that the rabbits are healthy. Also around here people bait the rabbits so it is farmed rabbits all round ….
I see – in a way, that’s too bad – I know I’m a little unique in that I have a ‘hunter, gatherer’ mentality, but over here it’s generally the ‘farmed’ stuff that’s problematic – and if you want purity, you go out in the woods and catch it yourself. For example, farmed salmon is fast developing a bad rep here, and most buyers would rather pay more -and eat it less often- than take a risk on potentially problematic cheaper stuff. However, the reverse is sometimes true too – I just gathered what probably was my last warm weather mussels because as our waters warm each summer, the toxins appear, and they shut down the gathering until the toxins disappear with the cooler weather.
It is all too complex for me. I am very hesitant to buy farmed produce from certain countries because their standards leave a lot to be desired but I also don’t like the idea of eating wild animals if their numbers are being depleted. oh dear …
Sorry Glenda you could never or anyone else for that matter convince me to eat Rabbit. I know it is silly because I eat everything else but I just have a thing about Rabbit. I never really liked it as a child. My parents just love Rabbit so you have a couple of fans there.
Hiya, Deb, A lot of people don’t like it as they have bad memories from their childhood. In those days it was wild rabbit and it was a cheap meat. Today, all the rabbits are farmed and they are not cheap. The meat is much milder than you remember.
Hmmm rabbit, one day Glenda, one day.
Lisa, Are you telling me you have never had rabbit? Ah dear, you will have to remedy that.
yep. Except for the Easter Bunny, which I’ve had my fair share of….
Ah Easter bunny! That counts 🙂
I love rabbit, AND Carluccio recipes, but I can’t sell it to Pete. Goodness knows I’ve tried, but he just doesn’t like the taste. I’d happily eat this though, and ask for seconds! 🙂
Celia, maybe when you come over we can have a rabbit feast 🙂
Another advocate here! I love rabbit and make a similar Greek rabbit stew called a “stifado”. This looks delicious and easy. I guess the “glass” of wine depends on the size of your wine glasses, but most reckon it to be between 125 and 150ml, but you were right in starting out with less. You can always add more later.
Hi Debi, Great to know there are more advocates than Anne and me 🙂