I know what you’re thinking: rabbit? How can you eat rabbit?! I know, I know. They are cute and furry, and that is hard to get over. However, our CSA farmer raised rabbits for eating last year, and I decided I wanted to give it a try. Did you know that rabbit is one of the healthiest meats out there? It has a really high protein content and the lowest percentage of fat among typically available meats. How does it taste? I don’t want to say that it tastes like chicken…but it’s not all that far off. I think it’s a sweeter meat with a milder flavor. I’ve only had rabbit meat a few times — once in college, and one time last summer in Colorado — it was the special at this restaurant we went to in Glenwood Springs, and it sounded so unique that I just had to try it. It was AH-mazing. I told Tom that it was one of the best meals of my life. It was that good. Seriously. So, of course, when I found out I had access to locally raised rabbit meat, I decided I had to try to replicate it. Having no idea what was in the “broth” base, I recalled as best as I could the ingredients I remembered and made up the rest. The resulting “stew” (I’m hesitant to call it a stew because there’s not much liquid) didn’t taste just like the one at the restaurant, but I still really liked it. And, actually, I thought it tasted even better on day two after the flavors had a chance to meld a little more!
Rabbit & Gnocchi Stew
Ingredients:
- 1 whole rabbit (I think mine was roughly 3-4 pounds)
- 1 cup beer (I used one of Tom’s home brews — an amber ale would be good)
- Salt and pepper
- 1 package of good smoked bacon, chopped (pancetta would be good here, too)
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 3 cloves garlic
- 2 cups cooked gnocchi (I used this recipe for Butternut Squash Gnocchi)
- 3 roma tomatoes, diced
- 1 bunch Swiss chard, chopped
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