Welcome to another tasty edition of Chefs Share! Every month, we highlight restaurant recipes from some of your favorite local chefs. These recipes don’t require any professional kitchen experience, and you can find the ingredients at your local supermarket or specialty store.
Courtesy of Boia De
Chefs Alex Meyer and Luciana Giangrandi
This month’s recipe comes from the chef duo behind Boia De (5205 NE 2nd Ave., 305.967.8866), a Buena Vista gem. Chefs Alex Meyer and Luciana Giangrandi opened their modern American restaurant back in June 2019 after shutting down their beloved La Pollita Mexican food cart. Since then, Boia De has earned critical acclaim for dishes like its Pappardelle alla Lepre, which you’ll be learning to make this month.
Note: This pasta dish uses rabbit, which you can find at Whole Foods, Wild Fork Foods or your local butcher. Most of the other ingredients are pantry staples.
“We love this dish so much. It’s rich and comforting, but it’s not heavy,” said Meyer. “Because we take a super lean, light-colored meat like rabbit and braise it to a ragu, it fills you up without slowing you down in the summer, and it warms you to your core in the winter. It’s the only dish that was on our opening day menu that is still being served the exact same way. And more personally, Luci grew up traveling to the Tuscan coast and would eat this exact dish at the restaurant she frequented the most with her family, Ristorante Da Antonio.”
PAPPARDELLE ALLA LEPRE
INGREDIENTS
• 1 rabbit, legs and bellies separated (or just the legs purchased from the butcher)
• Canola oil
• 1 onion, large cut
• 1 peeled carrot, large cut
• 2 celery stalks, large cut
• 3 garlic cloves, smashed
• 2 sprigs fresh rosemary
• 1 teaspoon tomato paste
• 1 cup white wine (chardonnay or sauvignon blanc)
• Chicken stock
• 1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 5 thinly sliced pieces of garlic
• 1 teaspoon + 1/2 teaspoon chopped parsley
• 1 teaspoon + 1/2 teaspoon chopped rosemary
• 1/2 cup reduced cooking liquid (from rabbit)
• 1 tablespoon simple tomato sauce
• 1/2 cup picked rabbit meat
• Egg yolk pappardelle, store bought or homemade
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
PREPARATION
To prepare rabbit and vegetables:
• Sear rabbit legs and bellies in a Dutch oven with canola oil until golden on both sides; remove from pot and set aside.
• Add chopped vegetables and garlic to pot; roast until they begin to color.
• Add rosemary and cook until fragrant, then add tomato paste, stirring to coat vegetables.
• Add white wine and continue to cook until almost dry.
• Add rabbit back to pot and just cover with chicken stock; bring to a simmer and lower the heat to very low so liquid is moving and steaming.
• Cover and cook for 2 hours. The meat should come off the bone with little effort but not be so cooked that it shreds apart.
• Allow rabbit to cool in cooking liquid, then pick the meat into a separate container and strain the remaining liquid in pot; reduce by 75%.
To prepare pasta and to plate:
• Add 1/4 cup olive oil and sliced garlic to a heated pan.
• Once garlic is sizzling, add one teaspoon each of chopped parsley and rosemary.
• Allow herbs to sizzle, then add cooking liquid and tomato sauce and bring to a boil.
• Add picked rabbit meat and cook, until a ragu forms and the liquid starts to look like a loose sauce.
• Drop in cooked pappardelle, bring back to boil and toss together.
• Add remaining parsley, rosemary, olive oil and Parmesan cheese. Toss it all together to combine and serve, finishing with a little more Parmesan and a drizzle of olive oil on top.