Book of Days Tales

Today is the birthday (1923) of Italo Calvino, acclaimed Italian author (and in my top 10 of the 20^th century).   Calvino was born in Santiago de Las Vegas, a suburb of Havana. His father, Mario, was a tropical agronomist and botanist who also taught agriculture and floriculture. Calvino’s mother, Eva Mameli, was a botanist and university professor.  In 1925, less than two years after Calvino’s birth, the family returned to Italy and settled permanently in San Remo on the Ligurian coast. The family divided their time between the Villa Meridiana, an experimental floriculture station which also served as their home, and Mario’s ancestral land at San Giovanni Battista. On this small working farm set in the hills behind San Remo, Mario pioneered work in the cultivation of a variety of fruits and flowers including grapefruit, avocado, grapes, olives, and roses, eventually obtaining an entry in the Dizionario biografico degli italiani for his achievements.

Calvino’s home town, San Remo, is in Liguria which is famous for being the birthplace of pesto.  But this is more of a Genoese specialty than west Ligurian, where San Remo is (close to the French border).  San Remo’s most popular specialties are baked bread items, including a special kind of foccacia.  Less well known, even to tourists, are the home made dishes from local game.  Here is a dish for wild rabbit (seems suitable for Calvino).  This is very much a local dish using local ingredients – white Vermentino (Ligurian varietal), San Remo olives, and San Remo olive oil. You can manage with substitutions. You may not be able to find rabbit liver and kidneys either (in Argentina they come with a butchered rabbit).  There is also a red wine version, using red Vermentino, but it is less popular. Roast potatoes are the usual accompaniment.

Coniglio alla sanremasca

Ingredients

1 rabbit (2 lbs/1 kilo) including the liver and kidneys
1 small white onion, diced
1 stalk of celery, diced
1 carrot, diced
2 large cloves of garlic
2 sprigs of rosemary (or 1 tsp dried)
3-4 sprigs of fresh thyme (or 1 ½ tsp dried)
3 cups (750 ml) Vermentino (dry white wine)
2 tablespoons of black olives in brine
1 tablespoon pine nuts
1 cup extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper

Instructions

Cut the rabbit into 12 parts.

Heat a heavy skillet over high heat and brown the rabbit pieces in batches, without oil.

Crush the garlic cloves with the flat of a kitchen knife and removed the skin. Place them with the diced vegetables in a clay pot with the olive oil and brown them over medium high heat. Add the rabbit and continue cooking for another 10 minutes until a crust forms in the pot.

Chop all the herbs . Remove the garlic and add the herbs, white wine, liver, and kidneys , and salt to taste. Cover and cook over low heat , stirring occasionally.

After about 40 minutes , add pine nuts and olives, and continue to turn the meat . If the wine is all evaporated , add a little wine to moisten. Cook another 10 minutes.

Remove the liver and kidneys, chop fine and return to the pot. Reduce what remains of the wine to form a glaze.

Turn off the heat, leave to rest for 5 minutes and serve.

Serves 4