225. RABBIT WRAPPED in FENNEL and BACON

makes one rabbit (see note)


1 whole wild or tame rabbit
a healthy splash of extra-virgin olive oil
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
a bundle of the stems of dried fennel (which can be obtained from good food shops, or you can pick and dry them yourself)
20 slices smoked streaky bacon
4 heads of garlic, skin on
1/4 bottle of white wine
2 cups chicken stock

Splash and rub your rabbit with oil, season enthusiastically with salt and pepper, then surround with the dried fennel from end to end and tummy to back (so it starts to look like a scene from The Wicker Man). Hold these in place by wrapping the whole thing in the strips of streaky bacon.

Lay in a deepish roasting pan or dish, nestle the garlic next to the rabbit, pour the wine and stock around it, and roast in a medium to hot 375 degree oven for approximately 1 1/2 hours, depending on the size of the rabbit (tame ones may only take 1 hour); check with a knife in its thigh to see if it is giving. The aim of this dish is a rabbit that's well cooked, but still moist thanks to the insulation we have provided.

When cooked removed the fennel. Unfortunately, it is not edible, but the bacon should be wonderfully crispy. When a cleaver or heavy knife, chop the rabbit into chunks and serve with the garlic and a jug of the juices from the pan.

NOTE: A tame rabbit will certainly feed four. A wild rabbit will feed between two and three, depending on its size.


courtesy of: The Whole Beast: nose to tail eating, by Fergus Henderson. New York: Harper Collins/ECCO, 2004. p. 119.