Recipe archive

Coniglio ripieno della Santina (1)

(= Santina’s Stuffed Rabbit)

Recommended wine: Vernaccia di San Gimignano D.O.C.G.

Ingredients for 6/7 people:1 rabbit (approx. 1.5 kg)400 g beef400 g pork200 g cooked ham, or a similar cold cut, in one thick slice200 g mortadella, or a similar cold cut, in one thick slice50 g pistachios1 glass dry white wine50 g grated Pecorino cheese6 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil2 sprigs of rosemary2 cloves of garlic1 eggs salt and pepper

Get your butcher to bone a rabbit, weighing about 1.5 kg, for you. Mince 200 g of the beef and 200 g of the pork, and chop the rest of the meat into small pieces. Put the meat, both minced and in pieces, in a large bowl with the peeled pistachios (soak them in boiling water for 10 minutes, after which you can peel them easily), the diced ham and mortadella, the grated pecorino, the egg, and salt and pepper to taste. Mix everything together well and use the mixture to stuff the rabbit, wrapping the meat tightly around the filling and tying it up with kitchen string. Season the meat on the outside, rubbing it with the peeled cloves of garlic and inserting some fresh rosemary (or dried if you don’t have any) under the string here and there. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and lay it in an oven dish. Prick the meat all over with a fork and then drizzle the olive oil over it. Put it in a preheated oven, at 180 °C, and brown it on all sides. Pour in the wine and allow it to evaporate; then turn down the oven to 150 °C and let the rabbit finish cooking, for about an hour, adding about 3 cm of hot water in the dish. Turn it from time to time as it cooks and prick it with a fork. This will allow the juices to run out; skim them off with a spoon and set them aside in a cup.

Slice the rabbit when it is warm, you’ll find it much easier that way. Mix the juices you set aside with the liquid remaining in the bottom of the oven dish, heat this “sauce” and pour it over the slices of meat arranged on a serving dish.

This is a somewhat elaborate dish, which takes a while to prepare, but the end result is really exceptional and your hard work will certainly be rewarded by the compliments, and the appetite, of your guests.

Santina is the name of a cook from Arezzo who, for dinners, parties and celebrations, used to go to the homes of families who asked for her help, to prepare tasty dishes of which only she knew the precise recipes (... and she jealously kept them to herself!) – it was a kind of olden-day catering service. This recipe is a (wonderful!) gift that she passed on one evening when she was in a particularly good mood!