Valentine’s Day dinner: main course

If you don’t know already, here’s your clue as to the main ingredient in the main course: What’s up doc?

Yes, indeed, I spent Saturday evening cooking Bugs Bunny. Let me tell you, this news has sent shockwaves through my American family. It’s a lot less common to use rabbit there these days.

But rabbit’s wild – and therefore free range. And it’s lean – and therefore guilt free. And it’s at the Ginger Pig in Victoria Park – so there’s another excuse to haunt that lovely butcher like it’s my job.

This year I let Pete pick the main ingredient in the Valentine’s Day main course – I often pick it, and it’s usually “of the sea”; i.e. scallops or monkfish. But it only seemed right to let him.

Let’s run through a few well-known rabbit dishes, of which there are few:

-Jugged hare (Not my thing)
-Rabbit ragu (Fine, just not that interesting.)
-Rabbit pappardelle (Now this I like.)

Lots of chefs have recipes for rabbit pappardelle – Jamie, Angela Harnett, Emeril – but I settled on Mark Hix’s version with broad beans and parsley from the Independent, and pretty much followed the recipe to the letter (used a little less butter and replaced fresh oregano with dried). Broad beans (bit out of season, I admit) came from the freezer.

Result: again, gorgeous. Loved it, loved it, loved it. Very filling, but so lovely on the tongue. Perfect with a crisp Sauvignon Blanc.