Secondi - Game, game, game

It's been a while since I've posted so apologies for the delay in updates. I thought that while Shane was away in Spain I'd be a bit more organized but looking after the kids had me tired by nighttime and I didn't do much after they were in bed other than drink my medicinal dosage of wine.

So, after a delay of several weeks, here is the follow up to the antipasti and primi post, with the meat dishes and my favorite accompaniment from my Umbrian cooking course...

My teachers were a bit surprised on the first day of the course when I told them I wasn't really interested in learning how to cook crumbed chicken breast or Umbrian hamburger and asked instead to learn how to cook wild boar and rabbit but being the good people they are, they happily obliged and on day 3 of my cooking course I learnt what to do with wild boar and a bunny.

The dutiful Italian wife serving Mr Heslop

Cinghiale (wild boar)

Ingredients
Wild boar cut into pieces about 2x2cm but roughly cut, not into cubes (apparently wild boar gets exported from Australia to Italy, so we should be able to get it in Aust) - if you can find it, ask for the pancia (stomach?)
2 Onions finely sliced
3 Rosemary sprigs tied tog.
Mixed herbs, finely chopped (thyme, oregano, rosemary, wild fennel which tastes a bit like dill, you can use the leaves of a fennel if you can't get anything else, and a tiny bit of mint)
EVO Oil
Butter
3 cloves wrapped in muslin
White wine
Tomato pulp/passata
1 tsp juniper berries

Method (keep lid on unless it asks you to uncover) - this needs to cook for a couple of hours to be tender
Cut cinghiale into pieces, put it in a bowl in the sink and fill with water and let the water run gently for half an hour (this is to remove the gamey flavour from the boar, if you are using pork you don't need to do this)
Put the cinghiale into a saucepan with oil and some water, 1 onion and rosemary sprigs. Keep it on a low flame to allow it to form a water (remove the first water which is the watery juice that comes up after it has simmered for a while)
Prepare another saucepan with the herbs finely chopped together and the remaining onion. Let it cook on low heat with some EVOO, butter and water. When the onion is cooked, place the cinghiale pieces with sale, pepper, chill pepper (not much), the sprig of rosemary, cloves onto the layer of the onion
and herbs. Add juniper berries. Cook on low heat.

When the juices have absorbed, add white wine sufficient to cover contents of the pan. Remove lid to evaporate alcohol and then cover with lid again.

If it is not cooked when the liquid has reduced, add some water or stock (any type - vegetable, chicken), and cover with lid again. When it has almost cooked, add tomato pulp, not too much, just enough to thicken the sauce.

Coniglio arrosto morto (Dead roast bunny)

Coniglio (rabbit) sung in the pot

Ingredients
Rabbit (farmed rabbit is better because wild rabbit is too tough and doesn't have any fat)
Pork cheek/lard
Pork fat for frying (cheek again is fine)
Rosemary
Wild fennel
Garlic
Oil, salt and pepper
1 Lemon,
White wine, 2 cups

Method
Prepare the frying mixture - pork fat, rosemary, garlic clove squashed, wild fennel, salt, pepper and olive oil. Dice pork fat and then chop everything together so it forms a paste.
Divide rabbit into 5 pieces: 2 hindquarters, 2 shoulders and centre (or you could ask the butcher to do it for you). Place the rabbit in water until it's ready to use or it will dry out and not be very tasty. This also prevents it from discoloring. Ask the butcher to keep the liver and heart in, and check the liver appearance - apparently, fat on the liver is evidence of a healthy rabbit. After 8 weeks in Umbria, my liver is looking pretty healthy too.

Bathe the meat in lemon juice, and spread the pieces of pork mixture over the rabbit. Also keep a bit of the frying mixture so that you can place some in the pocket of the rabbit's shoulder (or femoral muscle for those more medically attuned). Add salt and pepper, and place in the pan with the pieces of poor and more oil. make sure the centre is folded over so it doesn't dry out and cook before the rest of the rabbit. Use a pot/pan that means the rabbit is snug.

Place on low heat on the stove to allow juices to leave the meat.

When the meat is gently browned on both sides, add white wine; uncover and increase flame to max to bring back to the boil, then place the cover half over on lower heat to allow the wine to evaporate. When the smell of wine has gone, replace to cover and continue to cook on low heat for around 1-1.25 hours.

If necessary, add some water at the end of cooking. Allow the rabbit to cool, and then cut into small pieces. Put the sauce that has formed through a sieve and then pour over the rabbit.

(You can swap this recipe for chicken if you want)

Verdure Gratinate (Vegetables with breadcrumbs)

Ingredients:
1 red capsicum sliced lengthways into quarters and then halved again
1 eggplant cut into 1cm slices
3-4 tomatoes cut in half
Zucchini halved then sliced lengthwise
Salt
EVOO
Garlic
Parsley
Breadcrumbs

Method:

Preheat oven to 250 degrees (use top and bottom element, not fan forced)
Cut the vegetables
Salt the eggplants for 30 minutes to get rid of the bitter juices
Scoop the centers out of the tomatoes and keep separate
Place all vegetable pieces on an oiled shallow baking tray (or you can use baking paper)
Prepare the breadcrumb mixture - squash a clove of garlic with finely chopped parsley and add to breadcrumbs. Add salt and oil.
Drizzle oil over the vegetables, this helps the breadcrumbs stick to the vegetables, then a bit of salt for good luck.
Put a portion of the breadcrumb mixture aside to use for the tomatoes and add the sees and juices that were kept, squashing any solid bits to a pulp, and removing any part that doesn't pulp easily.
Spread the breadcrumb mixture over the vegetables, taking care with the tomatoes not to pack the mixture down too much.
Place in oven and cook for 25-30 mins, serve at room temp.

The finished product...Front centre verdure gratinate, middle left rabbit, middle back wild boar