Blewit & bunny bows

By: Rohan Anderson
From: A Year of Practiculture
Serves: 4
Photographer: Rohan Anderson & Kate Berry

My ex-father-in-law used to say that if he ever put an ad in the wanted pages of the local newspaper he’d call himself ‘Triple B’ (BBB) for bald, beard and bifocals. That has absolutely nothing to do with this recipe but it still makes me chuckle every time I think of it. This meal is my triple B, made with three ingredients I love in winter – blewit mushrooms, bunnies and pasta bows. The three ingredients marry well to make a creamy and saucy pasta. This is the prime time of the year for hunting wild rabbit, as the fields surrounding the old farmhouse are teeming with the pesky beasts. They like to sneak into my veg garden and munch on food I’m trying to grow for my family. So I like to eat them before they eat our food.

In the winter forests, the leaf litter under the oak trees provides prime growing conditions for the spectacularly beautiful wood blewit. The colour underneath these mushrooms is mind-blowing, especially if you find a specimen at that perfect age when the lilac colour is at its peak. But make sure you’ve been taught by an experienced guide before picking and eating wild mushrooms, especially under oak trees, where the death cap likes to grow. That’s a mushroom that will surely ruin a perfectly good day. The wood blewit, on the other hand, is less dangerous, but still must be cooked, as it’s a bit toxic raw.

Ingredients

Quantity	Ingredient
1	whole wild rabbit
1-2 tablespoons	olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
50g	butter
4	garlic cloves, crushed
180g	wood blewit mushrooms, chopped
180g	field mushrooms, sliced
125ml	white wine
3 tablespoons	thyme, chopped
500g	Farfalle
55g	mascarpone
135g	pecorino, grated, plus extra slices to serve
	salt, to taste
	freshly cracked black pepper, to taste

Method

Poach the whole rabbit in salted water for 2 hours, or until the meat falls from the bones. Set aside until cool enough to handle, then remove the meat from the bones and shred it with your hands into a bowl.
Heat the olive oil (a glug) in a frying pan over medium–high heat. Add the butter and garlic and stir. Once the butter has melted, add the mushrooms and fry for about 5 minutes. Splash over the white wine, add the thyme, and reduce for a further 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, cook the farfalle in salted water until al dente.
Drain the pasta, then return it to the saucepan you cooked it in. Add the shredded rabbit meat, cooked mushrooms, mascarpone and grated pecorino. Season with salt and pepper.
Serve with a few slivers of pecorino, a sneaky drizzle of olive oil and an extra grind of pepper.