Dolce Vita Diaries: The Recipes. Cathy Rogers

di Campofilone

      Macaroni with rabbit and olive ragù

      Ingredients for 8 people

      Parmesan – 50g grated, 400g to make a

       wafer to serve each dish on Olive oil – for frying

      Carrot – 1

      Onion – ½

      Celery – 1 stick

      Leek – 1

      Vine tomatoes – 300g

      Minced pork and veal – 150g

      Rabbit – half a boned one

       (get your butcher to bone it)

      Rosemary – 1 sprig

      Salt and pepper

      White wine – half a litre

      Vegetable or meat stock – if needed

      Courgette – 1

      Garlic – 1 clove

      Black olives – 350g of pitted ones

      Macaroni – 1kg of the smallest macaroni

       you can find

      Butter – a knob

      We discovered that in Le Marche rabbit is a standard dish in your everyday trattoria. Usually it's grilled, alla brace, over an open flame. In this dish the boned rabbit is cooked in tomatoes, allowing its aromatic flavour to come through in every tender bite.

      First of all get the parmesan wafers out of the way. Preheat the oven to 200^oC / gas mark 6. Thinly slice the cheese and then arrange it into rough circles with a diameter of about 20cm on a Teflon baking sheet (we also use a non-stick cooking liner called ‘Bake-O-Glide’). Make sure that the pieces are overlapping. You may have to make a few batches but they don’t take long. Whack it in the oven for 5 minutes or until the cheese has fused, then remove and put each circle on top of an upside-down tumbler so it takes the shape of a basket. When it’s rehardened set aside for later. Make a basket per person.

      Now for the sauce. First put some olive oil in a deep, heavy-bottomed pan over a low heat and brown the finely chopped carrot, onion, celery and leek. Then add the roughly chopped tomatoes to the pan and cook for another 10 minutes. You can then add the minced meats. While this is cooking cut the boned rabbit into 0.7–0.8cm cubes and then add them to the pan. Also add the chopped rosemary leaves and season with salt and pepper. Cook for a further 10 minutes before you add the white wine and stock, if you need it, to cover. Slowly cook it down.

      Cut the skin off the courgette and slice it in batons, julienne style, then sauté them with olive oil and the peeled garlic clove. Once they have a bit of colour, remove and chuck away your garlic clove and add the courgettes to the ragù. Also add the black olives. Let this cook while you prepare the macaroni according to the instructions on the packet (Massimo assured us that they make their pasta fresh each day, of course). When it is cooked drain and turn it into a frying pan with the grated parmesan and a knob of butter.

      Put a big serving spoonful of the macaroni in each parmesan wafer, then a spoonful of the ragù and serve immediately. Eat with a fruity and mature glass of ’99 Il Cupo from Le Marche’s Ester Hauser.

Aubergine involtini with sapa sauce

      Involtini di melanzane con salsa di zabaione di sapa

      Ingredients for 4

       For the aubergine rolls:

      Aubergines – 2 fairly large ones

      Salt – 2 tablespoons

      Olive oil – 4 teaspoons

      For the filling:

      Ricotta – 150g

      Pecorino – 400g cut into small cubes

      Salt and pepper

      For the sauce:

      Egg yolks – 2

      Salt and pepper