Rabbit Pasta with Green Olives, Fennel, and Preserved Lemons
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Main Course
Rabbit Pasta with Green Olives, Fennel, and Preserved Lemons
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The original recipe called for duck fat, which I used, but you could use olive oil to brown the rabbit and the vegetables. But probably the biggest question you have is: "What can I use in place of the rabbit?" The best swap out are chicken thighs, with the leg and the thigh attached. I used picholine olives, which are easy to get in France but you can use whatever green olives you can get. (Maybe skip the ones stuffed with pimentos, though, and save them for your Martinis.) You can make your own preserved lemons, although they can be found in shops that sell ingredients for Middle Eastern and North African cooking, which is what I used this time around. They have a special flavor that's hard to replicate with other ingredients.Piment d'Espelette is a relatively mild red pepper powder from the Basque region. A close approximation is sweet paprika but you could use another red pepper powder that's not very spicy to season ...
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Ingredients
- 4 large rabbit leg and thigh portions (mine were about 2-pounds, 900g, thighs
- kosher salt or sea salt
- piment d'espelette or sweet paprika
- black pepper freshly ground
- 2 tablespoons duck fat or olive oil
- 1 large onion peeled and diced
- 2 medium carrot peeled and sliced (not too thinly
- 1 bulb fennel diced, fresh
- 2 garlic peeled and minced, cloves
- 4-6 branches rosemary fresh
- 4 bay leaf
- 1 cup (250ml) water
- 1 preserved lemon peel diced (insides scooped out and discarded)
- 30 green olives pitted and chopped (1 cup, 115g pitted weight)
- 1/4 cup (60ml) extra virgin olive oil
- lemon juice fresh
- 1 pound (450g) mafaldi pasta (see headnote)
- Parmesan Cheese for serving
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 300ºF (150ºC.)
- Season the rabbit thighs with salt, piment d'Espelette or paprika, and black pepper. Heat the duck fat or olive oil in a Dutch oven that (hopefully) will fit them in a single layer, without crowding. (Otherwise you can brown them in a large skillet or in two batches, then add them to the pot later.) Add the thighs to the pot and let brown well on one side before turning them over and browning them on the other side. It'll take a total of 10 to 15 minutes.
- Remove the thighs from the pot and add the onions, carrots, fennel and garlic and cook, stirring frequently, until the aromatic vegetables are cooked through, about 5 to 8 minutes. If necessary, add a bit more duck fat or olive oil if the vegetables are burning. Once the vegetables are cooked, add the rabbit thighs back to the pot along with the rosemary, bay leaves, and water. Cover and braise in the oven for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, until the rabbit is very tender.
- Remove the bay leaves and any thick rosemary twigs. (I don't mind the rosemary leaves, which remain a little chewy, but you can pluck those out, too if you want.) Place the rabbit thighs in a bowl or dinner plate and when cool enough to handle, shred the meat from the bones. Strain the cooking liquid into a small saucepan and add the cooked vegetables back to the pot along with the shredded rabbit. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil to cook the pasta in.
- Add the olives and preserved lemons to the small saucepan of cooking liquid and heat until simmering. Turn off heat, let steep a few minutes then stir in the 1/4 cup of olive oil. Scrape the olive and lemon mixture into the pot of vegetables and rabbit and cover them to keep warm.
- Add the pasta to the boiling water cook the pasta until done, as indicated on the package. Drain the pasta, reserving some of the water, about 1/2 cup (125ml).
- Add the hot pasta to the pot with the rabbit, vegetables, olives, lemons, and sauce. Mix everything together well. If you want or need to warm it up, do so over medium heat. (If you want it more saucy, add a dash of the reserved pasta water.) Stir to warm everything through before serving. Serve with Parmesan cheese for guests to grate over their pasta.
Notes
- Note: This recipe makes quite a bit and if you'd like the cut the recipe in half, at the end of step 4, you can freeze half of the braised rabbit, stock, vegetables, olive, and preserved lemon mixture and use it another time. If you do that, use half the amount of pasta per batch.
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