Maltese rabbit stew

Ingredients

• Rabbit — jointed1.5 kg
• Dry red wine500 ml
• Garlic10 clove
• Bay leaves4
• Onions2
• Tomato paste3 tbsp
• Potatoes600 g
• Peas200 g
• Carrots2
• Olive oil60 ml
• Salt and pepperto taste

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Cover the jointed rabbit with the wine, half the garlic and the bay leaves and refrigerate for a day.

   20 min

2. 2

   Lift out the meat, dry it and brown it in olive oil. Keep the marinade.

   15 min

3. 3

   Fry the onion and remaining garlic until soft, add the tomato paste and cook three minutes.

   10 min

4. 4

   Return the meat, pour in the marinade, season and stew covered for an hour on a low heat.

   65 min

5. 5

   Add the potato and carrot and stew twenty-five minutes more.

   27 min

6. 6

   Add the peas for the last ten minutes.

   12 min

7. 7

   Ladle off some of the sauce and dress spaghetti with it as a first course. The meat follows.

   10 min

About the dish

The rabbit is marinated in wine for a day. The meat is lean and dense, and without a night in acid it stays tough however long it stews.

The marinade is not thrown away — it is the braising liquid. This is a case where the wine makes half the flavour, and stock cannot replace it.

The fenkata, a meal built around rabbit, is a Maltese institution: spaghetti dressed with the braising sauce first, then the meat itself. Two courses from one pot, and the order does not change.

Worth knowing

• — The wine should be one you would drink. A cheap sour bottle leaves a sharpness neither time nor sugar removes.
• — Do not overdo the browning: a crust is enough, and long frying dries meat that is lean to begin with.
• — The liver is fried and served separately. It does not go into the sauce, where it turns bitter.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

620 kcal

Protein

48 g

Fat

24 g

Carbs

44 g

More from Malta

• Pastizzi — Flaky pastries filled with ricotta or mushy peas. Maltese street food on every corner.