Foodie Thursday: Pasta.

Rabbit and porcini ragout with papperdelle and fried sage leaves

• ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
• 100g speck, finely diced
• ½ small leek, finely diced
• 1 small carrot, finely diced
• 1 small stick celery, finely diced
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1.2kg rabbit, cut in to 6 pieces – ask your butcher to cut this for you
• 20g dried porcini mushrooms, soaked in ½ cup boiling water
• 1 large field mushroom, finely diced
• 1 x 400g can diced tomatoes
• 2 cups good quality chicken stock
• 6 sage leaves
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 stalk rosemary
• 500g fresh papperdelle pasta
• extra, 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• extra 18, sage leaves
• optional, ½ cup finely grated Parmesan cheese

1. Heat olive oil a large, heavy based, casserole dish over and a medium heat and sauté speck for 3-4 minutes. Add the leek, carrot and celery and sauté
for another 3-4 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 2 minutes.
2. Move the leek, carrot and celery mixture to the sides of the pan and brown
the rabbit pieces well on all sides.
3. While the rabbit is browning, drain the porcini mushrooms, reserving the soaking water. Finely chop the porcini and once the rabbit is browned,
add with the soaking water to the casserole dish.
4. Add the field mushroom, diced tomatoes, chicken stock, sage, bay leaf and rosemary.
Bring to the boil, reduce to a simmer and cook partially covered for 2 ½ - 3 hours, or until the meat is falling off the bones. Once cooked remove the rabbit pieces from the casserole dish and carefully pull the meat off the bone, shred into bite size pieces. Return the meat to the pan and season to taste.
5. Cook the pasta in a pot of boiling water til al dente.
6. While the pasta is cooking heat the extra olive oil in a small shallow pan over a medium heat. Fry the extra sage leaves until crispy and drain on paper towel.
7. Drain the pasta, reserving 1 cup of the cooking water. Toss ragout through the pasta, adding a little of the cooking water if needed to loosen the pasta. Serve topped with fried sage leaves and parmesan cheese to your liking.

Recipe and Picture by The Food dept.