Rabbit Ragout Recipe

At Tarragon, we serve our rabbit ragout over a polenta cake, but it also works well with fresh pasta or baked on thick cut baguette.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 Whole Rabbit
• 1 C Fennel, Small Diced
• 1 C Onion, Small Diced
• ¼ C Pernod (An incredible liqueur that should be in your cooking arsenal by now!)
• ½ C White Wine
• 3 C Tomato Sauce
• Salt and Pepper to taste

METHOD:

1. Add oil to an large sauté pan and wait for it to smoke.
2. Season the rabbit with salt and black pepper.
3. Add the rabbit to the pan and hard sear both sides.
4. Remove the rabbit from the pan and place in a deep pan or casserole dish.
5. Add the fennel and the onion to the sauté pan and cook until caramelized. Deglaze with the pernod/wine mix. Add the tomato sauce and cook until it boils.
6. Pour over the rabbit, wrap the pan with foil, and cook in a conventional oven set at 350 for 2 hours.
7. Remove the rabbit from the pan and allow it to cool just enough to handle. Pull the meat from the rabbit. Be careful to discard all of the bones. Reincorporate the pulled meat back to the sauce and break the meat up further with a potato masher. 
8. Cool and Reserve.