Rabbit Braised with Red Wine, Tomatoes and Olives

A simple rabbit dish. The timings here are for wild rabbits, which are lean and need long, slow cooking. Luckily, you can just leave the rabbit alone in the oven most of the time.

• 1 wild rabbit, cleaned and jointed
• 400g chopped tomatoes
• half a bottle good quality red wine
• 20 black pitted olives, chopped in half
• 1 large onon, ffinely diced
• a handful of fresh basil leaves, roughly torn
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 level tablespoon fresh chopped oregano
• 2 tablespoons tomato puree
• salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat your oven to gas mark 2-3.
Brown the rabbit pieces on all sides. Place in a casserole dish that fits them snugly.
Sweat the onions and garlic with the oregano in the olive oil until soft.
Add the tomatoes, red wine, puree and olives. Stir well and bring to a gentle boil.
One the mixture has reduced to a thick sauce, stir in half the basil.
Add salt and pepper to taste.
Pour the sauce over the rabbit pieces and place in the oven.
After three hours the rabbit should be tender. Pour the sauce off into a wide saucepan and bring it to a bubble to reduce it. At this stage you can adjust the ingredients to taste as much a you like.
Stir in the remaining basil.
Taste, adjust seasoning and serve the rabbit with the sauce poured over it with some soft polenta with parmesan or, if you’d run out like me, with some penne tossed in parmesan and parsley.