Coniglio

Blog V Coniglio

Coniglio=rabbit
In Italian the word coniglio is used often to describe someone who is afraid, doesn’t have courage, or that they are stupid. Kind of like saying “you’re chicken” in English.
Coniglio all’aceto (rabbit cooked with vinegar), I found this recipe in one of my Italian cookbooks and it intrigued me. Now that I am writing it, it doesn’t sound too interesting, or good for that matter, but I had never heard of it and wanted to try it. It’s a traditional recipe from Chianti, and the reason for the vinegar marinate is to aid in sterilizing the meat.
Of course, the first time I made it I didn’t follow the directions, which implied 10 hours of marinating. I only marinated it for maybe an hour, but it turned out good.
The suggested pairing for the dish was a rosato (rosé) or a Lagrein. We tried it with both. The rosé I selected was a local Umbrian wine, called Bocca di Rosa (mouth of Rose), Rosato dell’Umbria from the Tabarrini winery in Montefalco. This is the latest trendy wine, made from 100% Sagrantino grapes. I believe that they are the first to make a rosé from Sagrantino grapes.
This type of wine was a good suggestion, because it’s got good acidity, and light tannicity, but unfortunately I didn’t care for the wine. It had a fake cherry flavor to it, which is normal in young, ready to drink wines, but I’m almost sure it’s what gave me a headache the morning after.
The second glass of wine was definitely more to my liking. St. Michael-Eppan, 2007 Lagrein from Sudtirol, Alto Adige in Northern Italy, an excellent choice. Nice body, not to heavy, not too light, aged to perfection, 13% alcohol, ideal for this dish.
Take II. This time I followed the rabbit recipe, did a 12 hour marinate, because that was when I was able to start cooking and thought 10 hours, another 2 won’t hurt, but…
In the end it was too vinegary, I thought. Graziano said it’s suppose to taste like that, but 8-10 hours marinate would have been better.
We paired our vinegary rabbit with a local wine from Lago Trasimeno (the Lake by the border of Tuscany here in Umbria). I selected an old favorite, Duca della Corgna, Divina Villa 2005 Trasimeno Gamay D.O.C. made from an international grape varietal . This too was an excellent choice, a little bit higher in alcohol content, 13,5% but still within the boundaries of the right balance. For the price of €7, you can’t go wrong with this wine, good quality, easy to drink and it’s a crowd pleaser.
I’m not sure if other people will like this dish, so I’m going to leave it off the menu for now, but if you have connections to fresh hunted rabbit, I would use this recipe because it’s easy (if you’re not in a hurry) and provides a safe meat handling procedure. If you buy rabbit from the butcher or market go for the legs only, because rabbit has really fine splintery bones that are unpleasant to deal with.