Brick Oven Rabbit

If I had to choose, this would probably be my favorite meal out of the Pompeii oven. Its a fair amount of work (especially peeling the pearl onions) but its really worth it.

1 Rabbit Cut Up

1/2 Cup Red Wine

4 Tbs Red Wine Vinegar

Olive Oil

Flour, Salt and Pepper

3 Celery Stalks Sliced

3 Carrots Peeled and Sliced

2 Bay Leaves

4 - 8 Cloves of Garlic (can you ever have too much?)

2 Tbs of Tomato paste dissolved in 1 & 1/4 cups of water.

2 Sprigs Rosemary

4 Allspice Cloves

1 Cinnamon Stick

1 Bag of Pearl Onions

2 Tbs Brown Sugar

1. Marinate rabbit pieces 4 hours in about one cup of red wine mixed with 4 tablespoons of red wine vinegar and two crushed bay leaves. (or if you don't have the time, marinate it for about 4 minutes; really, I've never noticed any difference except in the color of the meat).

2. Place 1/2 cup of flour in a grocery bag, add salt and pepper. Remove the rabbit from the marinade (AND SAVE THE MARINADE) and dry the pieces of rabbit with paper towels. Place the rabbit in grocery bag and shake like crazy to coat the rabbit with the flour.

3. Wet the bottom of a big frying pan with olive oil (about 3-4 tablespoons) and fry the rabbit over as high a heat as you can without burning the oil (turn on that vent fan). The point here is NOT really to cook the rabbit but instead to get a nice crisp crust on the exterior of the rabbit.

4. Remove the rabbit from the pan and place in your ovenproof dish.

5. Add the celery and carrots to the pan the rabbit just hopped out of, and fry them for about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and fry just until you can smell it (1-2 minutes?). Add some salt and pepper.

6. Pour the carrots, celery and garlic onto the rabbit. Add the reserved marinade to the dish as well. Put it in a hot oven uncovered for about 5-10 minutes (don't let the marinade completely evaporate; the point here is just to reduce it a bit). (Leave the frying pan alone; you'll use it again).

When these pictures were taken the oven was very HOT.

7. After the marinade reduces, remove the dish from the oven, add the tomato paste dissolved in water, the allspice, the cinnamon and the rosemary; cover tightly with tin foil and return to oven for about 1 hour to 90 minutes (your time will vary; err on the side of too long but don't let the liquid completely dry out. You cannot ruin this dish by cooking it too long but you can ruin it by allowing the liquid to completely dry out).

8. Pour yourself a glass of chardonnay; grab a paring knife and your bag of pearl onions and go outside and peel the onions. I've found that peeling pearl onions is best done outside where you can get tiny pieces of onion skin all over the place and not be concerned. Take a broom and sweep the onion skins off the patio and into the dirt.

9. Add some more olive oil to the pan and fry the daylights out of your pearl onions. You want them brown. After they are brown add the brown sugar and cook a little more to glaze them.

10. About 10 minutes before you eat, remove the foil from the dish and add the onions (but not the excess oil) to the top. Do not stir if you like your rabbit skin crispy. Continue cooking for the 10 minutes. Its done when it looks like this. (The picture makes those little black bits of onion look darker than they really are but they still are pretty dark but yummy.)