Archive: Around Town

	A few years ago, my heart stopped functioning properly. A cardiac artery was blocked, and I felt some strange and scary symptoms. The blockage was relieved with a stent, and the hospital that installed it included a detailed lecture to all such patients. They don’t want to see us again. Heeding that information has kept me healthy, and I want to share what I’ve learned.

For the past several weeks, I’ve been working on a rabbit recipe, and it’s time to publish it, or launch it, or roll it out. Whatever is the current expression.

Incidentally, a California meat producer says, “Rabbit is the meat of the future.” This from one who grows beef, lamb, goat, pork, rabbit, turkey, chicken, pheasant, quail, and squab. Beef is the most expensive meat to produce, partly because, especially for beef that’s good for you, it requires the most water and real estate. Good pork doesn’t have to be heart-cloggingly greasy, either, but as with beef, healthy hog husbandry — plenty of pasture, little or no grain — doesn’t scale up economically. Unless you grow meat in a factory system, your profit per animal doesn’t increase dramatically.


Rabbit meat isn’t exactly cheap to produce, either. The cost per pound doesn’t change much whether you breed ten does or a thousand, but rabbit farming requires only a postage stamp of property in contrast to cattle raising, far less feed, far fewer weeks to market, and a tiny fraction of the water. And the meat is extremely low in fat, and high in protein and potassium. A heart patient’s dream. And it’s delicious. It should be the meat of your immediate future. What more would you want, besides a good recipe?

Il cucchiaio d’argento means The Silver Spoon. It’s Italy’s counterpart to Larousse Gastronomique, which is France’s classic bible of all things culinary. I’m lucky enough to own the English translations of both books, and both contain excellent recipes for rabbit. Seems rabbit is the meat of the future only in the USA. We’re playing cuisine catch up.

Coniglio arrosto al rosmarino is Italian for Braised Rabbit with Rosemary, and here’s my version, which cuts out the butter and cuts up the rabbit instead of leaving the carcass whole.

•     4 fresh rosemary sprigs
•     1 rabbit
•     5-6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
•     1 garlic clove
•     Salt and pepper

Put the oil into a saute pan and start heating it on low.
Chop the needles of one rosemary sprig and set aside.
Cut the rabbit into four pieces: the left hind leg, right hind leg, the saddle, and the rib cage with its front legs.
Brush the rabbit with some of the oil. Place it in the pan. Sprinkle it with the chopped rosemary, salt and pepper, garlic clove, and rosemary sprigs.
Cover and cook over low heat 1 1/2 hours or so, turning once or more. If it goes dry, add a little hot water and/or wine (red or white).

And that’s it. Like rosemary chicken, only better. The original recipe leaves the rabbit whole. You put the remaining rosemary sprigs and the garlic inside the body cavity. It’s at least as good cooked whole and pulled apart later, but not as good for squeamish guests. Many meat eaters have never faced the fact that they’re eating real animals.

I experimented with shaking the pieces in seasoned flour and browning them before braising. It’s good but not as moist and tender as the Italian original. Wine is the only extra touch I use now, and it’s not necessary.

All hail Lansing Market for being the only store around that stocks locally grown rabbit. An Ithaca restaurant offers it, too. Fine Line Bistro, on State Street in Ithaca, has this menu item:  “Angel Hare Pasta: braised rabbit over soba noodles in a spicy tahini sauce with red peppers & scallions – chilled 11/18.” Eleven dollars for a small plate or 18 for an entree isn’t bad, considering the price of rabbit.

Can’t wait to try it.

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