What to do for Valentine’s Day on Saturday? Will your beloved be won over by a series of dainty, heart-shaped fancies?
A chocolate cake, as last year? A coeur à la crème? Hearts and flowers on a pale pink cassata? The year before last, I even devised cuoroni, home-made heart-shaped-filled pasta.
This year I’m thinking not so much of hearts as of squares, as in a square meal. The one I have in mind was such a success that I pass it on today as an idea not just for Valentine’s Day, but for any early spring dinner when you want to entertain a group of friends or family.
Of course, you could always follow my friend Lynn’s advice when it comes to planning a dinner. Her speciality is making reservations.
The main course is rabbit, but not as we know it. Instead of peas, potatoes and sun-dried tomatoes, my rabbit is cooked with walnuts and black olives.
I bought a wild rabbit in a farmers’ market in north London, but the recipe works perfectly with a Sicilian, Gozitan or Maltese rabbit, although the wild rabbit needs longer, slower cooking.
The recipe is inspired by one of those lovely old-fashioned postcards still to be found, which show a regional dish with its recipes, in this case coniglio alla sanremasca, San Remo-style rabbit.
I sautéed the liver and kidneys and served that as a first course with a leafy green salad. At this time of year, a scattering of borage flowers on top – or fennel, wild rocket or wild marigold flowers – is just the thing for a special occasion.
Dessert is simple, a tart posset made with bitter oranges and topped with a little marmalade (see my column of January 25). With this, I serve buttery shortbread fingers, or, if I have time, I might bake some almond biscuits, but really, the shortbread is almost as good.
The recipe is inspired by one of those lovely old-fashioned postcards still to be found, which show a regional dish with its recipes, in this case coniglio alla sanremasca, San Remo-style rabbit
The posset can be made just a short time before required. Even half an hour is enough, as long as you use chilled ingredients. The action of the sharp syrup on the double cream is enough to ‘clabber’ or thicken it immediately.
Saint Amour Beaujolais and Bordeaux Château Calon Ségur, with its heart on its sleeve, as it were, are always suggested as wines for Valentine’s Day, along with pink bubbly, and I would not argue against them.
However, a nicely mature Rhône wine is a perfect companion to the rabbit dish, or look for wine with a similar composition, Syrah, Grenache and Carignan, which you might find in a wine from the Languedoc or Provence. Alternatively, quite different in character but closer to the recipe’s origins, look to a Barbera or a Dolcetto from the Piedmont region.
An “excellent mixed salad” for spring in the manner of Giacomo Castelvetro, a medieval writer from Emilia Romagna, is a light and delicate way to precede the rabbit, and allows for a good deal of creativity.
It will vary as the spring advances and edible wild and garden flowers come into bloom. Take care only to use unsprayed flowers. All of the following add flavour, colour and texture to a salad.
The base can be leaves of Little Gem lettuces, lollo bionda, Salad Bowl or oak leaf lettuce or indeed a mixture: young dandelion leaves, young leaves of sorrel, rocket, mint, purslane, salad burnet, cress, basil, lemon balm, borage and chives, as well as primrose or primula flowers, violets, pansies, sage and rosemary flowers.
Wash the salad ingredients by putting them in a large bowl of water, moving them around to loosen any sand or grit, and then carefully lifting into a colander.
Pour out the water, and refill with clean water. Rinse again and transfer to the colander. If necessary, give the salad a final rinse. From the colander, transfer the salad to a clean linen tea towel, and dry it carefully, rolling it around on the tea towel without crushing it.
The drier the salad, the better, as this will allow the oil to cling to the leaves. And on the subject of oil and salad dressing, heed Castelvetro’s words: “Insalata ben salata, poco aceto e ben oliata.”
In other words, be generous with salt, even more generous with oil and miserly with the vinegar. Put the salad in a bowl, and pour on extra virgin olive oil.
Turn the leaves in it, and then add a little salt and finally the vinegar. Turn the leaves once more to coat them in the dressing. Add or not, the sautéed rabbit liver and kidneys, as you wish.
San Remo-style rabbit
(Serves 2 – but see cook’s note)
1 rabbit, jointed
1 onion, peeled and sliced
1 or 2 sticks of celery, trimmed and sliced
4 tbsps extra virgin olive oil
100g walnut pieces
1 bay leaf
1 sprig rosemary
Generous pinch dried wild thyme
250ml red wine
100g black olives – see recipe
Freshly ground black pepper
Gozo salt, optional
In a heavy pan, heat the olive oil and fry the onion and celery until golden, stirring from time to time. Meanwhile, crush half of the walnuts and keep the rest in pieces.
It is the crushed walnuts which give a lovely thick texture to the sauce. Transfer the onion and celery to a casserole.
In the same frying pan, brown the pieces of rabbit all over and add them to the casserole with the herbs. Pour the red wine into the frying pan and deglaze the base, scraping up any cooking residues, then pour it over the rabbit. Add the walnuts and a grinding of pepper.
It is unlikely you will need salt because of the olives which you add half way through cooking. I do this at 150˚C for about two-and-a-half hours for a wild rabbit, one-and-a-half hours at 160˚C for a farmed rabbit.
If the casserole shows signs of drying out, add a splash or two of stock or water, but in fact it is a relatively dry dish, in which the sauce clings to the meat.
Cook’s note: the reason I cook all the rabbit is that what is leftover is truly delicious. Some of it you can pound with butter and nutmeg for potted rabbit, and the rest is perfect with pasta, especially a fresh flat pasta such as pappardelle or tagliatelle.
A further note: the original recipe uses 250g olives, which I find too much, but if you love olives, then go for the authentic version.
Marmalade posset
(Serves 2 – but see cook’s note)
Juice of a bitter orange – about 3tbsps
3 tbsps caster sugar
300ml double cream
1 tbsp bitter, or Seville orange marmalade
Put the juice in a small saucepan. Add the sugar and cook gently until the sugar has dissolved. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.
Pour the cream into a jug. When the orange syrup is cool, stir it gradually into the cream, stirring continuously. You will feel and see the cream thicken.
Spoon into six shot glasses or custard cups and top with half a teaspoon of marmalade, making sure to include a strip of peel.
Chill until required.
Cook’s note: the posset freezes surprisingly well, so it is worth making the extra four; a useful dessert to have on hand.
As you can see from the ingredients, this is a very rich dessert, so 50ml glasses are perfect containers.