Rabbit on the menu

As a pest species, rabbit is available as a meat source all year round – and as these recipes demonstrate, it’s a tasty and versatile ingredient

The freezer finally cleared of post-season spoils of war, one can be left quite devoid of white game meat at this time of year. There’s an element of this that is no doubt good for us – just as looking forward to the first English asparagus spear in May or strawberry in June no doubt adds to their flavour when they at last arrive, the same is true for that first fresh grouse, that first September partridge on the barbecue and, come October, the joy of a roasted hen pheasant with red currant jelly.

Now, that’s all very well but it can mean a dry few months over the summer. Luckily, however, we all have access to that oft overlooked and incredibly versatile of meats: rabbit. From a culinary point of view, this is the finest time of year to be harvesting this marvellous meat. There are plenty of young and tender specimens around, and even the older boys and girls have had their meat enriched following a couple of months on summer pasture. Slow cooked, it is sweet and meltingly tender; minced, spiced and turned into kebabs for the barbecue, you have a cheap, sustainable and delicious reason to load up on friends, open that mag- num of rosé and while away a late-summer evening in the sun. As September presses on, however, and the autumn air turns cooler, the supper table calls for something a little more warming for body and mind. It is here I often look to the soul food of Italy for inspiration, and there are few things as comforting as a bowl of fresh pasta. Served with the padre of all pasta sauces, the rich and unctuous ragu, you have quite the finest means of easing into the colder months. And remember, rabbit is classed as vermin, so with every bite you are doing the countryside a favour.