Rabbit Recipe List

• Rabbit Amandine (Coniglio con Salsa di Mandorle)
• Rabbit with Cognac and Black Calamata Olives
• Sweet and Sour Rabbit

Rabbit Amandine (Coniglio con Salsa di Mandorle)

Ingredients:

• 1 large rabbit quartered*
• one-half bottle (about two cups) dry white wine
• a sprig of fresh laurel (bay leaves)
• a sprig of fresh rosemary
• a few small leaves of sage
• 100 grams of shelled toasted blanched ("white") almonds
• 50 grams of pine nuts
• 50 grams white or golden raisins
• 1 white or yellow onion
• 2 anchovy fillets (may be canned)
• 50 grams capers
• 2 tablespoons low-alcohol almond extract (the kind used in baking)
• extra virgin olive oil
• white pepper
• salt

*A skinless quartered chicken may be substituted if your sensibilities don't favor eating rabbit

Once favored among Sicily's aristocratic hunting set, roasted rabbit isn't as popular as it once was. Then again, neither is hunting, but today's farm-raised rabbit is no match for wild rabbit or hare, which has the unique taste of wild game. In Sicily, some rabbit or poultry is fed a traditional diet rather than commercial feed, and this "raspante" meat has a slightly gamier flavour.

Directions:

1• If it's not already quartered, cut the rabbit (or chicken) into pieces.
2• Remove the herb leaves from the stalks.
3• If you're preparing this recipe with rabbit, marinade the meat in the white wine with the rosemary, bay leaves and sage for 3-4 hours before cooking.
4• Then chop the onion into thin slices and place it in the bottom of a roasting pan with a tablespoon of olive oil. Add the rabbit and other ingredients, including the wine and herbs.
5• Roast the rabbit in the oven for an hour or more as you would roast a chicken, occasionally basting it with the wine and oil mixture.
6• The rabbit should be covered during half of the baking time, and turned over when it is about half cooked.
7• Add wine if necessary if the liquid sauce seems as if it will evaporate.
8• Meanwhile, chop the almonds and pine nuts into a fine granular consistency, almost powdery if possible.
9• Chop the anchovy fillets into a paste.
10• In a mixing bowl, thoroughly combine the almond-pine nut mixture with the anchovy paste, almond extract, the juice of one lemon, the capers and raisins.
11• When the rabbit is completely cooked, remove it from the oven and quickly stir in this combined paste before serving, adding a little olive oil and water if it seems too liquid. You may wish to remove the bay leaves.
12• Salt and pepper lightly to taste.
13• Italian arborio rice, prepared as risotto, makes a nice complement to Rabbit Amandine.

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Rabbit with Cognac and Black Calamata Olives

Ingredients:

• 2 pounds fresh rabbit, cut into pieces (butcher cuts)
• 4 tablespoons of olive oil
• 4 tablesppons of vegetable oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 garlic clove, chopped
• 3 ounces cognac
• 4 tablespoons beef bouillon concentrated with 2 cups water or stock
• 40 calamata olives
• salt, pepper and basil
• small container mushrooms
• 1 tablespoon of baking soda with two ounces water
• 5 medium potatoes (side order)

Directions:

1• Lightly brown pieces of Rabbit in the olive oil and vegetable oil.
2• Add the onion and garlic and garnish with salt and pepper cook for 10 more minutes.
3• Sautee with cognac until flame half down
4• Season with salt, pepper and basil as needed to taste
5• Prepare an oven pot with cover and add the beef bouilon or stock
6• Add the cooked rabbit ingredient and let cook for 35 minutes in oven at 350 degrees.
7• Remove cover and let cook for 25 minutes.
8• Add mushrooms and olives and let cook for 15 more minutes
9• Remove oven pot from oven and add one tablespoon baking soda to two ounces of water, wisk and add to thicken.
10• Put back in oven for five more minutes for thickening and serve
11• Meanwhile fry the potatoes for side dish with a nice green italian salad and a bottle of wine. courtesy Elena
Serves 6-8.
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Rabbit Sweet and Sour

Ingredients:

• 2 fresh rabbits (specialty ethnic butcher shop)
• White all purpose flour
• 40 pitted green olives, chopped
• 2 tsps capers
• 1 onion, sliced
• 2 curry leaves
• 1 cup white wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• Olive oil
• Salt and Pepper

Directions:

1• Cut the rabbits into 12 pieces (both rabbits)
2• Add the cut pieces in flour to coat them all around. Coat them all one at the time and set them aside.
3• In a frying pan brown the rabbit pieces well in the hot oil until gently seared.
3• Heat a little more oil in a second pan and cook the onion golden, then add the capers, olives, and curry leaves.
4• Transfer the browned rabbit pieces to the second pan, season them with salt and pepper, dust them generously with sugar, and sprinkle the vinegar over them.
5• Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook the rabbit until it's tender, the vinegar will evaporate, so as to produce a thick sauce.
Serves 4 - 6
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