Note: Il Passagio makes their own pasta for this recipe. If you don’t want to make your own use some high quality fresh pasta. The rabbit for this dish is sourced from a local organic rabbit farm in Brogo. Its also necessary to begin preparing this recipe the day before you plan to cook it.
Place the rabbit in a dish and cover with water and the vinegar and place in the fridge overnight. Drain the rabbit, pat dry with paper towel and leave out to come to room temperature. Next stud the whole onion with the cloves. Place a large saucepan over a high heat and brown off all the rabbit pieces. Remove the meat and fry the vegetables and pancetta for a few minutes. Add the white wine and bring to the boil, add the rabbit, tomatoes, bouquet garni, whole onion, nutmeg and chilli. Add enough water to cover the rabbit meat then place a circle of baking paper directly on the liquid. Place a lid on the saucepan and slowly simmer the rabbit for 1.5 hours until just cooked.
Remove the rabbit from the sauce, allow to cool slightly then pull the meat from the bones. Remove the whole onion and the bouquet garni from the liquid then add the rabbit meat back to the pan. Heat up the sauce and combine the meat well to form a chunky ragu, season to taste. To serve- boil your rigatoni until al-dente then toss with some ragu. Sprinkle with some fresh parsley, parmigiano and serve with a lightly dressed bitter leaf salad.
1 rabbit, jointed into 6 pieces
100g pancetta, chopped
2 carrots, finely chopped
4 celery sticks, finely chopped
2 fennel bulbs, finely chopped
2 large brown onions, 1 whole, 1 finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 handful of parsley
10 cloves
1 bouquet garni (parsley stalks, oregano, marjoram, rosemary, bay leaf, thyme)
500g dry white wine
600g chopped (or tinned) tomatoes
1 pinch dried chilli flakes
1 nutmeg, grated
500g rigatoni pasta
25ml white wine vinegar
200ml extra virgin olive oil