Tag: Il Libro d’Oro della Cucina e Dei Vini di Sicilia

One way to cook Rabbit like a Sicilian

One Sicilian method of cooking rabbit is to prepare it similarly to hare, marinating the meat and cooking it with strong flavours. This approach inspires timeless, flavour-rich country Sicilian cooking.

Although hare can be difficult to find, rabbit is more readily available and is a suitable substitute for the same traditional recipes.

I always begin by marinating the rabbit before cooking. The marination can be shorter than for hare, and the cooking time is also reduced especially when using farmed rabbit, which is more tender and less gamey.

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Marinaded fresh rabbit and aromatic spices ready for traditional Sicilian cooking

On my blog, you will find recipes for both rabbit and hare. In fact, most dishes designed for chicken can be easily adapted for rabbit with excellent results.

This particular rabbit dish was prepared with cloves, cinnamon and red wine, spices and aromas that are deeply rooted in Sicilian culinary history and a legacy of Arab influence on the island’s cuisine.

While cooking, I took more step-by-step photos than usual to capture the process and the unfolding colour and depth of the sauce.

Coniglio da Licodia Eubea—rustic Sicilian flavours
Complete meal, presented with roast potatoes and pumpkin and braised chicory

The food historian Pino Correnti, in his Il Libro D’oro della Cucina e dei Vini di Sicilia, attributes this recipe to Licodia Eubea and refers to it as Coniglio da Licodia Eubea.

I have driven through Licodia Eubea on my way from Piazza Armerina to Caltagirone and onward to Ragusa. I didn’t stop for photos there, but nearby Grammichele—with its remarkable hexagonal piazza and one of the world’s largest sundials—made an unforgettable impression. Like Licodia Eubea, the streets were almost empty, giving us the feeling that we had the whole town to ourselves.

For the completer recipe:

RABBIT with cloves, cinnamon and red wine (CONIGLIO DA LICODIA EUBEA)

Other Sicilian Recipes for cooking rabbit:

CONIGLIO A PARTUISA (Braised rabbit as cooked in Ragusa)

RABBIT COOKED IN CHOCOLATE (Lepre o Coniglio al Cioccolato -‘Nciculattatu is the Sicilian term for in chocolate )

 

 

SKORDALIA – the Sicilian scurdalia

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The skorthalia (skordalia) I am familiar with, is Greek in origin (originally called scoradalme, from scoradon, Greek for garlic). The modern versions are made mainly with potatoes, oil and garlic. The garlic with salt is placed in a mortar and using a pestle it is pounded into a paste.

This Sicilian scurdalia is made with bread, potatoes and almonds and I suspect its origins may be Greek, however, picada (Catalan garlic sauce) and ajo blanco (from southern Spain) are very similar. I think these examples help to illustrate how Sicilians may have responded to the flavours and inspirations of the different people who settled in Sicily but added their particular twists to make it their own – much like we do In Australia.

This sauce is particularly suitable for poached, sweet water fish. I have presented it with steamed or baked trout or Murray cod or as on this occasion with prawns. Pino Correnti’s version in Il Libro D’Oro Della Cucina E Dei Vini Di Sicilia is made with poppy seeds, but if you present this version to your guests tell your guests what is in the sauce – the black colour can be a little disturbing.

I use a food processor to almost pulverise the almonds (or walnuts). The poppy seeds I use whole, crushed lightly.

Use a mortar and pestle to make the sauce. The ingredients are added gradually to achieve a smooth purée like texture; as a variation I add some blanched ground almonds. Warm water is added to make the mixture smoother. I also know that in various parts of Greece, walnuts are used and that sometimes skordalia is made with bread instead of potatoes.

potato, 2 cooked, peeled and cubed
2-3 cloves of garlic,
½ cup extra virgin olive oil,
¼ cup blanched and ground almonds
salt to taste
juice of 1 lemon or 1 tbs white wine vinegar
hot water

Begin by pounding the with salt in the mortar and pestle.

Gradually add small amounts of almonds, potato and some of the oil, lemon (or vinegar) and continue to pound until all of the ingredients are finished and you have a smooth paste (add some hot water to thin as necessary).

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RABBIT with cloves, cinnamon and red wine (CONIGLIO DA LICODIA EUBEA)

Rabbit with cloves, cinnamon and red wine is a traditional Sicilian dish from the rural town of Licodia Eubea, and it reflects the deep and ancient roots of Sicilian cuisine. Sicily’s food culture has been shaped over thousands of years by the Greeks, Arabs, Normans and Spanish, each civilisation leaving layers of flavour, aromatic spices, and agricultural techniques that still define the island’s cooking today. Licodia Eubea, in the province of Catania, sits among fertile hills once shaped by Greek settlers (hence Eubea, a reference to the Greek island of Euboea) and still known for agricultural abundance and rustic, slow-cooked dishes.

Recently in Australia, rabbit has been plentiful, and I have been cooking it quite often. The expression “breeding like rabbits” is especially fitting given Australia’s ideal conditions—good rainfall and abundant vegetation supporting fast and extensive breeding. When possible, I use wild rabbit. Apart from having a stronger flavour, it is satisfying to think that using wild rabbit contributes to reducing an invasive population that causes significant environmental damage. Wild rabbits destroy native plant species, compete with local wildlife and livestock for food, and their grazing contributes to soil erosion across large areas of rural Australia.

I bought wild rabbit in Borough Markets in London and cooked this recipe in our accomodation Airbnb

This recipe came from Pino Correnti’s authoritative volume Il Libro D’oro della Cucina e dei Vini di Sicilia. Like many Sicilian recipes, the instructions are brief and quantities rarely specified, but with experimentation I have arrived at a version that works beautifully. The character of the dish comes from marinating the rabbit in red wine with warming spices: cinnamon, cloves, bay leaves and garlic. For wild rabbit, I marinate overnight; for farmed rabbit, 3 hours is usually sufficient.

Rabbit in the Catania Market

Over time I have adapted the recipe to my own taste, sometimes adding small onions or whole mushrooms to enrich the dish. On one occasion I served it with fregola—a Sardinian toasted pasta, cooked like couscous. It was delicious, though perhaps unconventional in the eyes of both Sicilians and Sardinians!

One rabbit (just under 1 kg) is ideal for four people.

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 rabbit, jointed
  • 1½ cups red wine
  • 6–8 cloves
  • 4–6 bay leaves
  • 2 garlic cloves, halved
  • 1–2 cinnamon sticks
  • ¾ cup extra virgin olive oil
  • Salt and pepper
  • 2 tbsp tomato paste, dissolved in a little water
  • 3–4 sprigs fresh rosemary
  • 6–8 fresh mint leaves
  • Whole onions, 1–2 per person

PROCESSES:
Clean the rabbit and cut it into manageable sections at the joints.

Marinate it in the wine, some of the oil, bay leaves, cinnamon and cloves and turn it occasionally. Wild rabbit: overnight. Farmed rabbit: 3 hours

Remove the pieces of rabbit from the marinade and drain well. Keep the marinade with the bay, cinnamon and cloves for cooking.
Cut small slits into the flesh of the rabbit and insert the garlic into the slits (the recipe just lists garlic in the list of ingredients).
Add the rest of the extra virgin olive oil in a large frying pan and sauté the pieces until golden. Remove them and set aside.
Reduce the heat, add the whole onions to the oil and toss them around until golden.
Add salt and pepper, the diluted tomato paste, mint, rosemary, the wine marinade with the bay leaves, cinnamon and cloves (if you want to accentuate the taste of the aromatics you may wish to discard the old bay leaves and cloves in the marinade and add new ones).
Cover with a lid and simmer it gently until it is cooked (wild rabbit will take twice as long to cook as the farmed rabbit and you may need to add extra liquid).
Remove the lid and evaporate the juices if necessary.

Serve with extra fresh mint leaves.

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This rustic and aromatic rabbit dish brings together the historic flavours of Sicily—spice-led cooking introduced by Arab rule, wine reflecting local agricultural tradition, and slow simmering methods that speak of rural kitchens and generous family tables.

One way to cook Rabbit like a Sicilian

PUDDASTRI CA PIPIRATA: POLLASTRI CON PEPERATA (Chicken with a sauce containing pepper and spices)

These beautiful chickens (and dogs) belong to friends. The chicken with the speckled feathers around her neck (in the front of the top photo/ and in the second photo at the bottom) won 1st prize at the Royal Melbourne show in 2009.
My friends would not dream of eating their chickens.

Whilst admiring these chickens my friends and I began discussing a chicken recipe that they had eaten at my place, an adaptation of a Sicilian recipe called Jadduzzedi e Puddastri ca sarsa pipirata in Pino Correnti’s book: Il libro d’oro della cucina e dei vini di Sicilia.

Correnti describes the dish as young chickens and roosters, pot roasted in oil, butter, bay leaves, rosemary, salt and pepper and deglazed with a little marsala (the dry variety). These were then served with a reduced salsa pipirata consisting of the following ingredients: vin cotto, broth flavoured with cinnamon, cloves, ginger and rosemary, grated lemon peel and pomegranate juice. Apparently this particular dish was appreciated by a noble in Palermo in the eighteenth century.  Unfortunately then Correnti  goes on to say that this dish was revealed to him by a medium, and that he has never found  any basis or documentation for this recipe.

All cuisines have cultural origins, but the cooking methods and flavours have altered and evolved throughout history to become what they are today.

For a detailed version of the possible Cultural Origins of this medieval sounding dish see:

SPICY CHICKEN SALAD WITH PEPPER, PUDDASTRI CA PIPIRATA: POLLASTRI CON PEPERATA

Here is my version of Puddastri ca pipirata.

INGREDIENTS
chicken fillets, skinless or with skin. I use organic and depending on how large they are, estimate 1 per person.
The following recipe is sufficient for 6 people.

For the poaching liquid:
chicken stock, sufficient to cover the fillets (made beforehand)
celery, 2 stalks left whole
carrots, 3 young, scraped and left whole
onion,1 sliced into thick slices
spices, 5 whole cloves, 1 cinnamon stick, 6 pepper corns
bay leaves, 3
parsley, 4 sprigs
rosemary, 1sprig

For the marinade:
extra virgin olive oil, 1 cup
spices, 1/2  teaspoon of each, ground cloves and cinnamon (I used whole cloves once and watched my friends picking them out from their mouths – not a good feel),
bay leaves, 3- 4 (fresh leaves look great as well as doing their job)
chilly flakes or black pepper, to taste (I use plentyt)
sugar, a small teaspoon
salt, to taste
red wine vinegar 1/3 cup
lemon, the juice of 1, and the peel , peeled with a potato peeler and kept in strips so it can easily be removed.

For the salad:
celery, 2 of the tender stalks sliced thinly, and some of the light green leaves, chopped
cooked chicken and carrots
spring onions, 3 chopped or cut lengthwise into thin , short pieces
pine nuts, 3/4 cup
seedless muscatels (or raisins or currants), 3/4 cup previously soaked in a little wine or marsala

PROCESSES
Prepare this dish at least the day before you serve it – this allows the flavours in the marinade to achieve the required results.(I have learned through experience that this dish tastes even better if left to marinade for at least 24 hours).
Use a wide, shallow sauce pan which allows the fillets to be placed in a single layer (if possible). If the chicken is in a double layer, ensure that during the poaching process you swap the ones on top with the ones in the bottom layer to allow even cooking.

Prepare the poaching liquid – I really like to make this strongly flavoured.
Use sufficient chicken stock to cover the chicken fillets. (I usually have some stock in the fridge or stored in the freezer made with chicken with bones, carrot, onion and celery stick, a little salt, boiled and then reduced – see BRODO earlier post).
Strain the stock through a colander, empty it into the saucepan and to the stock, add the ingredients in for the poaching liquid listed above.
Bring the stock with added flavourings to the boil.
Place the fillets gently into this poaching liquid – it should just cover the fillets. Adding the meat to the hot stock will seal the meat and preserve the flavou. Adding the meat to the cold liquid will enrich the taste of the broth. Because the meat is the focus, add the chicken to the hot liquid.
Cover with a lid and bring slowly to the boil again on medium heat. Leave the chicken to poach gently for about 7 minutes (I do not like to overcook them – they need to be white in colour and when pricked with a fork still have some resistance).
Remove the pan from the heat and leave the chicken in the poaching liquid till cool – the chicken will keep on cooking in the poaching liquid and be kept moist till you are ready to marinade it.
Marinade: Mix all of the ingredients together in a container.
To assemble the salad:
I like to use a deep glass bowl to see the chicken and salad ingredients in layers.
Take out chicken fillets and cut each fillet into thick slices.
Strain the poaching liquid, discard the solids but keep the carrots – these can be sliced into batons and added to the salad.
Place the chicken fillets and carrots in layers and cover with a little marinade and other ingredients as you go. The lemon peel and bay leaves can be at the bottom of the dish and between the layers. Sprinkle pine nuts and drained dried muscatels, the spring onions, celery and carrots between the layers.
Top the whole dish with some of the cooled poaching liquid until all the chicken is covered (this will keep it moist and a good colour) and leave to pickle in the fridge. Shake the dish occasionally to amalgamate the flavours. Remove it from the fridge about an hour prior to serving.

Presentation
Prior to presenting the dish you may like to drain off some of the liquid to make it more manageable. Ensure that each person receives some of the other solids as well as the chicken and serve some of the liquid separately if you wish.

It is at this stage that on numerous occasions I have taken more liberties with dish by:
•    adding one or more extra ingredients to the dressing: 1-2 chopped anchovies , 1 tablespoon of pomegranate molasses instead of the sugar (molasses is definitely not Sicilian)
•   scattering pomegranate seeds on top of the salad.

Save any left over liquid to use as a stock to flavour braised rabbit, chicken, pork and venison dishes.

A bit of trivia:
I read recently that pomegranate juice has anti-inflammatory compounds, cancer-killing isoflavones and antioxidant properties. Italians call it melograna, melograno granato, pomo granato, or pomo punico. The generic term, punica, was the Roman name for Carthage, and the best pomegranates came to Italy from Carthage.