Recipe - Coniglio Alla Cassia

1 2pound rabbit or chicken,
cut into 8 pieces
2 tablespoon Wine vinegar

TO COOK THE RABBIT/CHICKEN
2 ounce Pancetta (or bacon),
unsmoked
1 Heaping TBS rosemary leaves
4 tablespoon Sweet (unsalted) butter
1 tablespoon Olive oil
2 lg Bay leaves
Salt, to taste
Freshly ground black pepper,
to taste
1 cup Chicken broth, defatted,
(preferably homemde)

TO COOK THE PEPPERS
4 tablespoon Sweet (unsalted) butter
1 tablespoon Olive oil
3 Whole anchovies in salt, or
6 filets, packed in oil
3 Red or yellow bell peppers*,
cleaned and seeded
2 lg Cloves garlic, peeled, and
finely chopped
10 Sprigs Italian parsley,
leaves only
4 tablespoon Red wine vinegar
Salt, to taste
Freshly ground black pepper,
to taste

TO SERVE
Italian parsley leaves

Place the rabbit in a bowl of cold water with the vinegar and soak it for
half an hour. (If using chicken instead, omit this step). Cut pancetta or
prosciutto into very small pieces and finely chop the rosemary and combine
them, or even better, coarsely grind pancetta and rosemary together.

Place a casserole with the butter and oil over medium heat and when the oil
is warm, add the pancetta/rosemary mixture and the bay leaves to saut‚ for
2 minutes. Meanwhile, quickly drain the rabbit pieces, pat them dry with
paper towels, and add them to the casserole. Let them saut‚ all over until
very lightly golden. Season with salt and pepper. Add the broth, a small
quantity at a time, turning the rabbit over several times, and cook until
soft, about 25 minutes for a 2 pound rabbit.

As the rabbit cooks, prepare the peppers Warm the butter with the oil in
a saucepan over low heat, then add the anchovies and mash them with a fork.
Be sure the heat remains constantly low, so the anchovies do not crumble
and become very fishy. Put in the peppers and saut‚ for 5 minutes. Raise
heat, add One half cup of cold water, and cook the peppers for 5 minutes more;
at that point, the peppers should be halfcooked. Add the garlic, parsley
and vinegar and let the vinegar evaporate for 5 minutes. Taste for salt and
pepper. Transfer contents of saucepan to the casserole containing the not
yet completely cooked rabbit and mix well. Cook until the rabbit is done.
The peppers will be overcooked and form a chunky sauce. Discard bay leaves
and transfer everything to a serving platter.

Serve with parsley leaves sprinkled over each portion.

NOTES : (Rabbit or Chicken and Peppers, Piemonte Style)

Recipe by: =A9 Giuliano Bugialli August 13, 1996

Posted to MCRecipe Digest V1 #492 by Frank Cavalier fcaval@idt.net on
Mar 02, 1997.