Rabbit Cacciatore

    

   

There is a small portion of the frozen food section at my market devoted to surprising me with wonderful cooking ingredients. I know it’s not really just for me, but it is fun to think that, and it is fun to discover what new thing may be there. On one occasion it was partridge, so I made partridge with a chausseur or hunter’s sauce. Many times it's venison.  This past week, it was rabbit, cleaned and cut into pieces. Fall brings the opportunity to cook and enjoy game and different meats, so I thought why not? Needless to say, I don’t have rabbit recipes off the top of my head and had never prepared it before. Braised rabbit came to mind, but sounded boring. So, I consulted my The Silver Spoon cookbook. The Silver Spoon is one of the great treasures of Italy. It is said that The Silver Spoon is most successful cookbook in Italy, the book that has its place in every family kitchen and that every Italian passes on to their children. Not disappointing, The Silver Spoon has over 20 recipes for rabbit, and another 4 for hare. I chose the recipe below for Rabbit Cacciatore. It was really very simple, dispelling any notion that something as foreign as rabbit would be hard to cook. So, next time you see rabbit in the case, grab it and take it home and cook it, you’ll be glad you did. Serves 4.

Ingredients:

2 tbsp butter

1 onion, chopped

1/3 cup prosciutto, chopped

1 rabbit, cut into pieces

3/4 cup dry white wine

1/2 tsp dried thyme leaves

2 14 ounce cans of diced tomatoes

1 tbsp flour (optional)

salt/pepper

soft polenta, to serve

Directions:

Melt the butter in a Dutch oven or deep saute pan over low heat, add the onion and prosciutto.  Cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes.  Remove the onions and prosciutto to a bowl and add the rabbit to the saute pan.  Increase the heat to medium and brown the rabbit on all sides.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Stir in the wine and scrape up the bits of the bottom of the pan to deglaze.  Return the onions and prosciutto and add the thyme.  Cover and cook for 15 minutes.  Add the tomatoes, bring to a gentle boil, reduce the heat to simmer, cover, and cook for 45 minutes.  If the cooking juices are still too runny, thicken the sauce by stirring in the flour and simmering a few minutes more.  Remove all the rabbit pieces except the legs, and with a fork, shred or remove the meat from the other pieces such as the neck and back, looking for and separating any bones.  Return just the shredded meat to the stew and stir in.  Serve by plating over soft polenta.