HARE or RABBIT COOKED IN CHOCOLATE. Lepre o Coniglio al Cioccolato (‘Nciculattatu is the Sicilian term used)

One of my favourite ways to cook rabbit or hare is with chocolate; chicken can also be cooked in the same way but is less common. If it is chicken it will cook in a relatively short time, a rabbit will take longer and a hare will take much longer – I cooked hare and it took close to three hours to cook.

There are several Spanish and South American recipes where chocolate is used in savoury dishes so the chocolate does not need to be considered unfeasible – Spaniards ruled Sicily over long periods. 

Those of you who have been to eastern Sicily may have noticed the Baroque architecture that is especially prevalent in this part of Sicily and you may have visited Modica, the centre for Sicilian chocolate; this is where the recipe is said to have its roots. 

In this Sicilian recipe the rabbit (or hare) is cooked in the same way as alla stemperata (in all stemperata dishes the ingredients include celery, carrots, onions, vinegar, sugar, raisins or sultanas, pine nuts, green olives and capers) but fennel seeds and cloves replace the last two ingredients and finally dark chocolate is used to enrich and thicken the sauce. The flavours in the stemperata have been partly accredited to the Arabs and are characteristic of much of Sicilian cuisine. 

Hare, like all game benefits from marinading in wine before cooking. I do this when I am cooking rabbit as well, but there is no need to marinate chicken. I always save some of the leftover cooked hare and sauce for a pasta dish – use ribbon pasta, e.g. tagliatelle or pappardelle. 

Whenever I buy hare I remember butcher shops in Italy where each beast is often left with a part of its body to make it recognisable – the head or the foreleg complete with fur, hoof, claw or paw. 

INGREDIENTS

hare, rabbit or chicken 1.5- 2 k

dark chocolate, 200 g

onion, 1-2 sliced

red or white dry wine, 1 cup 

wine vinegar, ½ cup 

cloves, 6-8

celery, 4 stalks, sliced finely 

carrots, 3 sliced finely

bay leaves, 4-6

fennel seeds,1 large tablespoon

extra virgin olive oil, ¾ cup

chilli flakes and salt to taste

pine nuts,1 cup

raisins or sultanas, ½ cup (naturally sun dried)

sugar, 1 tablespoon

 
PROCESSES:
Clean the hare or rabbit or chicken and cut it into manageable sections at the joints. 

Marinate it in the wine and half of the quantity of the oil and bay leaves for at least 3 hours and turn it occasionally (if cooking rabbit, 1-2 hours is sufficient). 

Remove the pieces and drain well; keep the marinade for cooking.
Add the rest of extra virgin olive oil in a large frying pan and sauté the pieces until golden. Remove them and set aside.

Add the onions, carrots and celery to the same pan and sauté until soft but not coloured.  

Reduce the heat, and add the wine marinade, bay leaves, fennel seeds and cloves, the seasoning and vinegar. Cover with a lid and simmer it gently until it is soft. You may need to add some water periodically as it cooks so that it does not dry out (this has always been my experience).

Add the sultanas or raisins, pine nuts and chocolate about 30 minutes before it is cooked. Remove the lid and evaporate the juices if necessary.