Ravioli di Coniglio

As I meandered through the Nashville Farmers Market one meltingly hot Saturday morning, I happened to pass the stall of Chigger Ridge Ranch. John and Debbie Mays raise lamb and rabbits on their hormone, antibiotic, herbicide, fungicide, and insecticide free farm in Charlotte TN. While I wasn't in the mood for lamb that morning, I was intrigued by the rabbit. Turns out they had sold out for the day a wouldn't have more for a couple of week due to holidays and processor schedules.
So I would have to wait. And wait. Then I had scheduling issues that made me wait... I thought I would never lay hands on a little cute furry bunny wabbit to grind up into forcemeat for rabbit tarragon sausage.
I did finally catch John and Debbie on a fine (read miserably hot) Saturday morning with a fine stock of individually frozen leporidae and separately packaged livers. I chose a nice looking rabbit and a single pack of livers and I was off to make sausage.

While I don't have pictures of the act, boning a rabbit carcass is not an easy task. While the legs are similar in size and shape to chicken legs, that's were the similarity ends. The bones are different and the meat is a little more resistant to removal from said bones. Plus all the connective tissue makes it interesting. After a few minutes with a good sharp knife I had a pile of meat that resembled so much chicken. It wouldn't look that way for long.

My grandfathers meat grinder served well to render the chunks into a nice fine textured ground meat. The livers (ground also) added to the meat served the same purpose that pork fat would serve in regular pork sausage, flavor and binding. My hands were covered in meat and liver, so snapping a pic was out of the question at the time. Picture ground chicken in a bowl and you will have the visual.

So here is my take on:

Rabbit Tarragon Sausage

1 1/2 lbs ground rabbit meat
1/2 lbs ground rabbit liver
1 tsp rubbed sage
1 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp black or white pepper, finely ground
2-3 tbsp fresh minced tarragon (I like a lot of tarragon)

Mix all ingredients in a bowl and until thoroughly combined. Try to keep the mixture cold so that the forcemeat doesn't "break". (separate the fat and lean)
To adjust the seasoning, poach a tsp of the sausage either wrapped in plastic wrap in gently simmering water (180°) or sauté over medium heat until well done 3-4 minutes for both methods.

Once you have a nice batch of sausage you need some way to deliver it to your unwitting culinary guinea pigs or to your family. Whichever group you have easier access to and might be more gullible receptive. Remember, not everyone digs the prospect of noshing Thumper. ("heheh heheh" evil chuckle)

I decided on ravioli. Pretty easy to make. Or so I thought... The first batch of pasta was a might on the thin side and kept blowing out during sealing. The second batch was a little thicker (one notch on the pasta roller machine thicker) and was better suited to making the little pasta dumplings.

1 tsp of sausage per ravioli is what I went with. I didn't want to overload the pasta.

I topped the little bugger with a scant 1/4 tsp of ricotta and a pinch of good parmigiano reggiano.

The I used a pastry brush to dampen the edges of the pasta with a little water, folded it over and carefully sealed it. I made sure to remove as much air as possible so that the ravioli wouldn't explode. I trimmed the edges with a pastry crimper and was all set.

So how to cook and serve... 3-5 minutes in gently boiling, salted water (they float to the top) then a quick sauté with a little butter. Plate and drizzle with a little beurre noisette (brown butter).

Again no pictures. Both times I served these was not in my kitchen and I had forgotten my camera. I actually meant for my one guinea pig friend to take pictures when I did dinner with he and his wife, but I forgot.

I really enjoyed the light texture of the rabbit. It has a deeper flavor than the look-alike chicken and is more substantial without being heavy.

Rabbit is going to become a staple protein in my kitchen, just not too frequently. (It's slightly more expensive than other white meat. But nutritionally better.)

I recommend trying rabbit. I recommend getting it from John and Debbie at Chigger Ridge Ranch. Saturdays at the Nashville Farmers Market. Tell em Chris sent you.

Cheers

Chris

P.S. In the interest of full disclosure, this post was in no way sponsored, endorsed or solicited by Chigger Ridge Ranch.

But they do got good meat - psst try the lamb sausage too.