Sep 2007
Bunny, Pancetta and Shitake Pasta
Bunny Pancetta and Shitake Pasta
They’re cute, fluffy and hop around a lot. I’ve got one named Sneaker and boy is he cute. Except when he’s being a jerk. And that’s a lot. I’ve lost $2000 worth of cabling from around the house that I’ve had to replace (he has a taste for the expensive proprietary Apple kind) and his favourite game is to hop up on my bed an hour before I want to wake up each morning and run around across me until I get out of bed, after which he’ll ignore me. He’ll make a great pie one day.
In the mean time, I happened across fresh grain fed farmed bunnies in the David Jones food hall. Now, I love Sneaker and since I haven’t cooked much bunny before I figured I needed some practice to do him justice so I picked one up with no real idea what to make with it that night.
When I got home I rummaged around and found some pancetta in the fridge and some dried Chinese mushrooms in the cupboard. I didn’t want to have to make a buttery short crust pastry, so, pasta. Easy.
Jointing the bunny was fairly easy; it only took five minutes, slicing off the legs at the joint, and since I was going to be chopping the bunny up after it was roasted I hacked off the saddle with out too much care, just keeping close to the ribs to keep as much meat as I could. The rest of the carcass went into a zip lock bag and into the freezer for a future bunny stock.
The jointed bunny pieces were dusted in flour and fried off in a heavy roasting dish then set aside. The onion and pancetta were fried in the oil left over from the meat. The bunny was added back in along with the diced mushrooms, stock, mushroom soaking liquid and some chopped rosemary. The roasting dish was covered and the lot was roasted slowly for two or three hours. Once roasted, I shredded the bunny meat off the bone with two forks ready to be used to top the pasta.
The pasta was simple, 100gms of flour and 1 egg per person (the should be enough sauce for 4-6 people). Kneaded until smooth then rolled to a low setting through a pasta machine. Once I had the long sheet, I simply tore off chunks (not cut). The pasta was cooked in salted water and then added to the bunny sauce. Tearing the pasta helped the pasta to soak up more of the juice from the sauce.
Served with some lightly grated parmesan.
They’re cute, fluffy and hop around a lot. I’ve got one named Sneaker and boy is he cute. Except when he’s being a jerk. And that’s a lot. I’ve lost $2000 worth of cabling from around the house that I’ve had to replace (he has a taste for the expensive proprietary Apple kind) and his favourite game is to hop up on my bed an hour before I want to wake up each morning and run around across me until I get out of bed, after which he’ll ignore me. He’ll make a great pie one day.
In the mean time, I happened across fresh grain fed farmed bunnies in the David Jones food hall. Now, I love Sneaker and since I haven’t cooked much bunny before I figured I needed some practice to do him justice so I picked one up with no real idea what to make with it that night.
When I got home I rummaged around and found some pancetta in the fridge and some dried Chinese mushrooms in the cupboard. I didn’t want to have to make a buttery short crust pastry, so, pasta. Easy.
Jointing the bunny was fairly easy; it only took five minutes, slicing off the legs at the joint, and since I was going to be chopping the bunny up after it was roasted I hacked off the saddle with out too much care, just keeping close to the ribs to keep as much meat as I could. The rest of the carcass went into a zip lock bag and into the freezer for a future bunny stock.
The jointed bunny pieces were dusted in flour and fried off in a heavy roasting dish then set aside. The onion and pancetta were fried in the oil left over from the meat. The bunny was added back in along with the diced mushrooms, stock, mushroom soaking liquid and some chopped rosemary. The roasting dish was covered and the lot was roasted slowly for two or three hours. Once roasted, I shredded the bunny meat off the bone with two forks ready to be used to top the pasta.
The pasta was simple, 100gms of flour and 1 egg per person (the should be enough sauce for 4-6 people). Kneaded until smooth then rolled to a low setting through a pasta machine. Once I had the long sheet, I simply tore off chunks (not cut). The pasta was cooked in salted water and then added to the bunny sauce. Tearing the pasta helped the pasta to soak up more of the juice from the sauce.
Served with some lightly grated parmesan.
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