Rabbit pasta

This rabbit recipe is a real people pleaser, making a deliciously meaty, gamey sauce for a classic pasta dish. Double up the ingredients if you need feed a crowd.

Ingredients:

• 1 rabbit
• 3 rashers of bacon
• 6 pickled gherkins
• 4 spring onions
• 1 shallot
• 10 chestnuts
• 1/2 bag of fresh pasta
• 2tbsp creme fraiche
• 1tbsp roasted pine nuts

For the stock:

• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 small onion
• 1/2 pint of water
• 1/3 glass of white wine
• Salt and pepper

Preparation:

1. Skin and gut rabbit
2. Chop off the legs and remove the loins, leaving the skin on
3. Put the kidneys and liver to one side

Method:

1. Brown the legs in a pan and then add the garlic, onion, 1⁄2 pint of water, 1/3 glass of white wine (a large glug) and salt and pepper to make the stock. Simmer gently for 40 minutes.
2. Put the two loins together and then, using the skin, fold them over. Place two rashers of bacon side by side, one slightly overlapping the other, then use them to wrap the loin. Put cling film around the wrapped loin and add to the simmering stock. Poach for eight minutes.
3. Chop the gherkins, spring onions, shallot, chestnuts and the remaining rasher of bacon. Cook the pasta and, at the same time, sweat the bacon and onion together in a pan for four to five minutes.
4. Remove the legs from the stock and strip the meat off. Then sieve the stock.
5. Chop the kidneys and liver and brown them for two minutes in the pan.
6. Add all the chopped ingredients to the drained, cooked pasta. Stir the sauce into the pasta and mix in the rabbit offal.

Serve on a large dish with the rabbit loin sliced on top. Delicious!