While I was in the north and at the butcher’s, I spotted some rabbit
£2.20! I bought that and started to think of things to make with it. Because the rabbits are wild they have very little fat on them but they are high in protein… a very delicious meat but they need to be cosseted in order to get the best from them. I thought a lovely rich ragu, slowly cooked until the rabbit was tender and served with pasta would be gorgeous.
What you will need is rabbit, of course, carrots, onion, some streaky bacon, a couple of bay leaves and some peppercorns. You’ll need either fresh tomatoes or a tin of the lovely Italian plum tomatoes, some wine, garlic and some butter.
I got the bay leaves from the tree on the balcony
You will need pasta to serve it with – I make it when I have time but just buy some if you want to.
It was the weekend so I had the time to do this….. first of all, if the rabbit isn’t jointed, then do it now. Mine was, so that saved me a job. If it isn’t then you need to take a sharp knife and carefully cut through the joints. If you have poultry shears snip down the ribs. Get it into roughly evenly sized pieces.
Heat your casserole and some oil and then start to brown your rabbit. What you are about to do is get the meat ready and make a delicious stock that you will add to the tomato sauce to pour over your pasta.
While the rabbit is browning, get the rest of the stock ingredients together
Chop the carrots and onion, get some black peppercorns and add that to the browned rabbit. Add some water – don’t entirely cover the rabbit – and see all the lovely browning caramelisation mix with the water already……
Just leave that to simmer quietly for an hour and a half or so until the rabbit is tender and falling off the bone.
Now get cracking on the ragu…..
Usual routine… chop the onion, start to sweat it gently…
Never put the garlic in with the onion as it burns too quickly.. so while the onion is gently softening, chop the garlic
Then the bacon… chop that and add it
Once that has started to cook down, add the tomato. Chopped plum tomatoes in a tin are fine… excellent, in fact. You should always have tins of them in the cupboard.
The juice sticks to the side of the tin so pour some red wine in and swish it round… then pour it in
Well, you might as well get the last of the tomato out and you don’t want to dilute the delicious ragu with water, do you?
Now that, too, can simmer for a while…..
See how rich it is looking?
Back to the rabbit…..
See? It is tender and starting to come away
Get it out and put on a plate.. don’t throw the stock out! Look at how the wooden fork can gently pull the flesh away ….
Meanwhile, strain the vegetables from the stock.. you don’t need them but you do need the stock
Boil down the stock with a good old slug of vermouth for a few minutes so it reduces slightly then add it to the ragu…. I decided to blitz it as I wanted a smooth base to go with the soon-to-be shredded rabbit
Start shredding the rabbit… well, you don’t need to shred, it just falls apart when you pull at it
Do watch out for the bones though.. a rabbit always seems to me to have more bones than are necessary… look at them
Still, you get a lot of meat for your £2.20
Then, add the lovely, tender, delicate rabbit to the gorgeously smooth sauce
Stir it round.. that rabbit need to be covered in the sauce
While that is gently simmering, get some pasta ready
And then…? Well then you put the two together…
That is something I will be doing again. There was enough rich and tasty ragu there to easily feed 6 of us. Pity there was only the two of us……. don’t you wish you had been passing and had called in to share?