Fricasseed Rabbit with tomatoes, bacon and herbs

Well this isn't in Marcella's books but it is hers in spirit. We spotted a rabbit at the markets and lugged it home. Being a little knackered, I wasn't inclined to go shopping to buy anything in particular for little thumper, and I didn't really have any recipe in mind.

But I did pop to the corner store to buy some milk, bread and bacon.

So this is how I cooked my first rabbit, sans recipe: first i chopped the blighter up, then I browned it in a pan with some olive oil, chopped rosemary, four garlic cloves, a couple of bay leaves and some juniper berries (I've always wanted to use them). It became apparent that a rabbit doesn't contribute as much fat as a chicken, and so I put in some more olive oil.

Meanwhile, I cooked some chopped bacon.

Once the rabbit was brown, I deglazed the pan with a good half bottle of red wine, since I had no white, and put the bacon in, and reduced it until the alcohol passed. It was about now the consensus was that some onion would be good, so I roughly chopped a red one and softened that a little in another pan before throwing it in the mix. Along with a can of tomatoes (mashed with my hands) and some salt and pepper.

I removed 3 of the 4 garlic cloves as they were a little too brown for my liking. I'm not sure why - I suspect it's got to do with a lack of fat in the rabbit.

Then I just cooked the little bugger for about 2 hours, turning every now and then, which is more than for a chicken.

The result: I would have been impressed if I was in rural france, or tuscany. This was one impressive looking, and tasting, dish, and I was all the more pleased as I just put it together with Hazan technique.

I served it with the Alice Waters gratin, which I'm telling you again is an absolute cracker.