Bunni Bunni

First: Consider this your obligatory warning that this entry contains formerly cute and furry creatures.
Second: I had a pet rabbit and his name was George.
Third: Rabbit tastes just like chicken.  No.  Really.

Now let us get on with it, shall we?

This week was pasta.  And unlike Brian, I really enjoyed making it from scratch, I had that Popeil special in the 80's and it sucked!  If they normally need to use a brass die to extrude the pasta, a Ronco special with plastic dies was simply a bad idea from the start.  And did you ever try to clean one of those pasta makers?  ARGH!

And sure, you can buy fresh pasta almost anywhere these days, almost every store has a version of it in the chiller case.  But sometimes I just LIKE to make things from scratch.  CAUSE I CAN. 

I'm going to rush out and get myself one of those lovely ATLAS pasta rolling machines and practice.  Even if I am the only person in this house who eats pasta.  Husband (more commonly known as - he won't eat that) will not eat pasta, save for the semi annual round of Bolognese with linguine, so I have it maybe once a month and make him something else for dinner that night.

This week I made the papperadelle.  Long rolled out strips of pasta sheet with whole fresh herbs rolled in between the layers are then cut in strips about two fingers wide (or less).  These were held flowered on the 'ugly' tablecloths as Chef called them, until we needed to cook them.  In Italy, floured bedsheets, preferably not freshly off the bed, are the common way to hold your fresh pasta until it is ready to be cooked. 

While the pasta dough was resting I made the ragu.
I cut the rabbit into primal parts and browned it in a large pan with a mirepoix of carrots, onions and celery.  The pan gets deglazed with some wine and then tomatoes, tomato puree, garlic, red wine vinegar and some cinnamon are added.  Then veal and chicken stocks are added in two additions along with a bit more wine.  This all gets partially covered and simmers for about 50 minutes to an hour until the meat can be shredded off the bone.  In the meantime some dried porcini's are rehydrating in warm water and portabello's have their gills removed and they are grilled with some olive oil and s&p.  When the meat is cooked it is removed from the bones.  Everything else in the pan is run through the robot coupe and returned to the pan.  The porcini liquid (strained) and porcinis are added along with the rabbit meat.  This cooks for 5 - 8 minutes and then fresh chopped sage and parsley are added. 
The papparadelle are cooked quickly in water and pulled out with a strainer into a bowl.  Some sauce is immediately tossed with the papperadelle and then it is all moved to a final platter and the rest of the ragu is placed on top with the sliced, grilled portobella's and some shavings of Romano are sprinkled on top.

Here it is:

What REALLY, really, made me happy was that even the picky eaters, who were horrified by my calling it bunni bunni whilst I carved it up and cooked it, tried some.  And just like Mikey...'They liked it!'  I consider that alone an accomplishment.  As Brian has mentioned a couple of classmates are very vocal about disliking almost everything we make.  This often shies others off from trying it because they tend to make faces as we all try the thing that they don't like.  It has its grade school playground like moments.  I'm really too old to give a shit, but the younger ones are easily swayed by public opinion. But even though they expressed thier distaste, they not only tried it, but came back for seconds.

This all made up for my cake on Monday which I christened Mr Hanky the Christmas Poo.

You be the judge.

Guess it would help if I actually liked chocolate.

Comments

[Brian]

In fact, I'll bet if you didn't tell people it had rabbit in it, they'd never know the difference.

[sean]

I have to agree with you and disagree with Brian. I like home made pasta. If I used his logic, screw making bread too...I like the process.

Anyway, is this cake a Sicilian recipe? I seem to remember being instructed to go over the top when decorating it.

[Ryan F. ONeil]

Yeah, but homemade bread is way better than store-bought. And with a stand-mixer, there's practically no work. Plus, a loaf of sandwich bread can last for a few days to a week.

But, to each his own, so enjoy your homemade pasta :)

[Raspil]

rabbit does not taste like chicken; it tastes like rabbit. the only thing in this world that tastes like chicken is chicken. as a culinary student, you shouldn't be so quick to write off something as good as rabbit is as bland and boring as a piece of chicken.