Here Comes Peter Cottontail

I haven't done a recipe for a while, and this turned out really good, so I'm sharing. This comes from a Swiss canton that borders Northern Italy and doesn't take as long as it sounds. Except maybe the rabbit part.

Rabbit Stew from the Swiss canton of Ticino (honest, it really is . . . .)

Start with a rabbit. Yeah, I know, they're furry and cute and they make movies about them, but sometimes you need to broaden your horizons just a smidge. Hey, the guy I got this from suggested that if you can’t find it within yourself to use a rabbit, you can always use a cat. I think he was joking . . . . .

No, you probably cannot find a rabbit at the Piggly Wiggly, or Wal-Mart, but if you look around you’ll find one somewhere. If all else fails, do what I did. Shoot one of the furry buggers. On the other hand, if you’ve never cleaned a rabbit before, keep looking at grocery stores until you find one, cut up and frozen. Trust me on this. . . .

Now, brown some fragrant bacon in a little butter in a dutch oven or large kettle. Bacon infused with maple is good (it'll make the house smell like you know what you're doing). Once the bacon is browned, toss in the rabbit pieces and let them brown gently on all sides (make sure you have enough fat from the bacon and the butter to keep the rabbit from drying out while it browns). Once that's done, set aside the rabbit in a covered dish, sprinkled with a little salt and some dried, crushed herbs. I used a little poultry seasoning. It has "stuff" in it (stuff - you know, read the label . . .)

Once you have the rabbit sitting tightly in the covered dish, toss into your kettle of bacon and butter some chopped celery, chopped onion, chopped chives, chopped garlic, two sticks of cinnamon, black peppercorns, and two or three bay leaves (you can also add diced carrot). You need to stir this a lot while it’s cooking, oh say, maybe 7-8 minutes. Toward the back end of that time, take the rabbit’s liver and cut it up into small chunks. (You need this to build flavor base - don't be squeamish). Toss it into your mix and continue to stir until it the liver goes from red to gray.

Stop for a couple of sips of red wine at this point. Mmmmmhhhh. Good, isn't it? Cooking is fun!

Now add enough red wine to slightly cover everything. ( There is no measure for this, just eyeball it!) Let it bubble until you can no longer smell the wine. That means the alcohol has evaporated away. Add a can of tomatoes, halved, sliced, diced, chopped, I don’t much care, but if you can find them, use San Marzano tomatoes. And then send me six unopened cans by parcel post. I will reimburse you, I promise.

To this add herbs: thyme, majoram, (or oregano), and rosemary. Dried and in sprigs if you can. (Sprigs = like little branches . . .)

Toss the rabbit back in and let it come to a boil. Then cover and gently simmer for about one hour. While you’re waiting you can make polenta, which is gonna take you about 60 minutes, so do the math. You are going to have to stir the hell out of this every two minutes with a wooden spoon for the first 30 minutes in order for it to be smooth, so don’t plan on doing any word games, text messaging, or talking on the phone till this part is done.

When its done (60 minutes later), it should be smooth and no longer be grainy. Mix in at least a third of a stick of butter (no, I didn’t say this is a weight watcher menu - skip dessert if you're concerned) and a bunch of grated parmesan cheese.

Yes, its fattening. But you're not gonna eat like this every night, so live a little!

Now you can remove the large spices and herbs, bay leaves, peppercorns and cinnamon sticks from the rabbit kettle. Then you have three choices. (1) leave the sauce as is (natural style); (2) filter the sauce and add some butter to make it shiny (sophisticated style); or three use a mixer to mash up all the chunks (rustic style). I recommend rustic.

Serve over the Polenta. I used a Pinot Noir to accent the meal. Better than fishsticks isn't it?