By the Book: “Eating Italy” by Jeff Michaud

For this round of By the Book, I chose a twofold challenge: fettuccine with braised rabbit and porcini. First, there was the emotional challenge of cooking with rabbit (my childhood pet); and second, there were myriad techniques required to build a complex sauce. Luckily, the friendly butchers at Bolyard’s Meat & Provisions broke down two rabbits for me. By the time I saw my bunnies, they looked like just another cut of meat, not the cutest nose-wiggling animals on the planet. With the first obstacle down, it was time to rely on author Jeff Michaud to get me through the next one.

His pasta recipe was clear, resulting in beautiful fresh fettuccine that, when cooked, had the perfect al dente bite. I always recommend making your own noodles, instead of opting for store-bought. You get to play with your food, working with a hand-cranked machine and cutting shapes out of dough. It impresses people, but isn’t actually hard to do. It’s basically the perfect food.

The multi-step braised rabbit with porcini sauce took a lot of time. I had to rehydrate mushrooms, sear rabbit, saute onions, reduce wine, crush tomatoes, braise, shred, puree and top off with butter. But all that effort paid off with intensely deep, mushroom-forward umami flavor. Unfortunately, there were some practical problems. Primarily, this recipe produces nearly double the necessary amount of sauce. If I weren’t committed to cooking precisely by the book, I would never have transferred all my precious pasta into the vat of sauce. Also, this dish isn’t cheap: two whole rabbits and four ounces of dried porcini mushrooms cost a lot of money. That’s the consequence of cooking from a (not your) regional cookbook. But when you love a region, sometimes it’s worth the cost.

Skill level: Intermediate
This book is for: People with a lot of time, money and love for Italy.
Other recipes to try: Candele pasta with wild boar Bolognese
The verdict: Although the pasta had perfect bite and the sauce had miles-deep flavor, flaws in pasta-to-sauce ratio kept Eating Italy from beating out Flour + Water.

Fettuccine with Braised Rabbit and Porcini
6 to 8 servings

1 lb. (450 g.) Egg Pasta Dough rolled into 4 sheets, each about 1/16 inch (1.5 mm.) thick (recipe follows)
4 oz. (113 g.) dried porcini mushrooms (about 1½ cups)
2 rabbits (about 3 lb./1.3 kg. each)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
¼ cup (60 ml.) olive oil, divided
1 small yellow onion, finely chopped (2/3 cup/105 g.)
½ cup (120 ml.) white wine
2 cups (480 g.) canned plum tomatoes, preferably San Marzano, cored and crushed by hand
4 Tbsp. (56 g.) unsalted butter
2¾ ounces (78 g.) Parmesan cheese, grated (¾ cup), divided

• Lay a pasta sheet on your work surface and cut the pasta crosswise into 12-inch (30.5 cm.) lengths, making sure each one is well floured. Run each piece of pasta through a fettuccine cutter and fold it gently onto a floured tray. Repeat with the remaining pasta dough. Dust with flour, cover, and freeze for up to 3 days.
• Soak the porcini in hot water until soft, about 15 minutes. Pluck out the mushrooms and finely chop. Strain the soaking liquid through a fine-mesh strainer and reserve.
• Rinse the rabbits and remove the innards and excess fat deposits. Remove the hind legs and forelegs by driving your knife straight through the hip and shoulder joints. Cut each leg in half through the center joints. Snip through the breastbones with kitchen shears, then cut the rabbits crosswise into 5 or 6 pieces each. Season the rabbit pieces all over with salt and pepper. Heat 2 tablespoons (30 ml.) of the oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the rabbit pieces in batches to prevent overcrowding, and sear until golden brown on both sides, about 5 minutes per side. Transfer to a platter.
• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (175 degrees Celsius).
• Add the onion to the pan, and cook over medium heat until soft but not browned, 4 to 5 minutes. Add the wine, stirring to scrape the pan bottom. Simmer until the liquid reduces in volume by about half, 5 minutes. Put the tomatoes in a food processor and pulse until finely chopped, and almost pureed. Add the tomatoes to the pan, along with the chopped mushrooms and the rabbit pieces. Add just enough of the reserved porcini liquid to barely cover the rabbit pieces. Cover and braise in the oven until the rabbit is so tender it falls apart, about 2 hours. Remove the rabbit, let cool slightly, and then pick the meat from the bones, feeling for small bones with your fingers. Shred the meat and discard the skin and bones. Put the braising liquid through a food mill or puree it briefly in a food processor. If the pureed braising liquid is thin, boil it until slightly thickened. Return the shredded meat to the pureed braising liquid.
• Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Drop in the pasta in batches to prevent overcrowding, and stir after a couple of seconds to prevent sticking. Cook until tender, 30 seconds to 1 minute, depending on whether it is refrigerated or frozen. Drain the pasta and reserve the pasta water.
• Add the remaining 2 tablespoons (30 ml.) of olive oil and 2 cups (475 ml.) of the pasta water to the ragu. Bring to a boil over high heat, and then lower the heat to medium and simmer gently for a minute or 2. Add the cooked pasta, stirring constantly to prevent sticking. When the sauce is slightly reduced and coats the pasta, add the butter and ½ cup of (50 g.) of Parmesan. Season with salt and pepper to taste and stir until the butter melts completely, 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer to plates and garnish with the remaining Parmesan.

Egg Pasta Dough
1 pound (450 g.)

1¼ cups (155 g.) tipo 00 flour or all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
½ cup plus 1 Tbsp. (70 g.) durum flour
9 large egg yolks
1 Tbsp. (15 ml.) extra-virgin olive oil

• Combine both flours in the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment on medium speed. Add the egg yolks, oil and 3 tablespoons (45 ml.) of water, mixing just until the dough comes together, 2 to 3 minutes. Add up to 1 tablespoon (15 ml.) more water, if necessary, for the dough to come together.
• Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead until silky and smooth, about 5 minutes, kneading in a little flour, if necessary, to prevent sticking. The dough is ready when it gently pulls back into place when stretched with your hands. Shape the dough into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or up to 3 days.
• Cut the dough into four equal pieces and let them sit at room temperature for 5 to 10 minutes before rolling out. Shape each piece into an oblong disk that's wide enough to fit the width of your pasta roller. Lightly flour a long work surface and set the pasta roller to its widest setting. Lightly flour one of the disks of dough, pass it through the roller, and then lightly dust the rolled dough with the flour, brushing off the excess with your hands.
• Set the roller to the next narrowest setting and again pass the dough through, dusting again with flour and brushing off the excess. Pass the dough once or twice through each progressively narrower setting. For thicker pasta, such as corzetti, you generally want to roll to about 1/8 inch (3 mm.) thick or setting No. 2 or 3 on the KitchenAid attachment. For strand pasta, such as fettuccine, or for cannelloni, you want to roll about 1/16 inch (1.5 mm.) thick (setting No. 4 or 5 on the KitchenAid attachment). For ravioli, you want to roll the pasta a little thinner, to about 1/32 inch (0.8 mm) thick (setting No. 6 or 7); ravioli sheets should be thin enough that you can read a newspaper through the dough.
• As you roll and each sheet gets longer, drape the sheet over the backs of your hands to easily feed it through the roller. You should end up with a sheet of 4 to 5 feet (1.25 to 1.5 m.) long. Lay the pasta sheet on a lightly floured work surface and use a cutting wheel, knife, or the cutter attachment on the pasta machine to create the right pasta shape for the dish you are making.