The latest addition to EB’s book shelf is not just a book of recipes; months of research, hundreds of original paintings and beautiful words have been brought together in one fantastic book. The Painter, The Cook and L’Arte di Sacla’ is a true celebration of regional Italian Food.

This book is about the passion, joy and love that people have for regional Italian food, which prompted a family from Piedmont to encourage artisans and food lovers to form a co-operative to champion their local produce. The family soon discovered that the rest of Italy wanted to share these foods, and by the 1930’s they were getting requests from other parts of the world, including those ‘in the know’ in Britain. To deal with the increasing demand they established Sacla’, and soon gained a reputation in the UK as those irresistibly Italian food people, best known for their delectable pesto and tantalising antipasti.

Today Sacla’ offers a range of Italian foods that provides people here with contemporary presentations of authentic family recipes to help transform their daily meals. It is not surprising then that the Sacla’ family should now encourage and enable a celebrated food writer and talented artist to share their Italian adventure with us, and stimulate our tastebuds with an eclectic selection of traditional recipes from six of Italy’s inspirational food regions.

This is such a beautiful book, at first I was scared to take it anywhere near my kitchen! But the recipes are superb and the paintings tantalised me so much, I just had to risk it! I always pick up a rabbit when I go to our farmers’ market and the following rabbit recipe brought colour and warmth to a cold, gloomy Sunday afternoon.

Coniglio in Potacchio (Rabbit with Tomato and Rosemary Sauce)

The Rabbit

1.5kg Rabbit cut into pieces
½ Lemon
2 Tbspns olive oil
60g unsalted butter
150ml dry white wine
1 onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper.

The Potacchio Sauce

1 small onion
2 or 3 fresh rosemary sprigs (12cm long)
Zest of 1 unwaxed lemon
1-2 dried chillies, according to strength
3 Tbspns olive oil
400g canned chopped plum tomatoes
Dozen black olives, stoned.

Wash and dry the rabbit pieces. Rub each piece with the half lemon. Heat the oil and the butter in a large sauté pan. When the butter foam begins to subside put in the rabbit pieces and fry on all sides until nicely browned. Add the wine, bring to the boil and boil for 1 minute. Turn the heat down and add the onion and the garlic. Season with salt and pepper, then cover the pan and cook for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare the sauce. Chop very finely together the onion, rosemary, the zest of the lemon and the chilli. Put the oil in a frying pan and when it is hot add the chopped ingredients. Sauté gently for 5 minutes or so and then add the tomatoes and a little salt. Cook over lively heat for about 15 minutes, stirring frequently.

Now that the potaccio is done, scoop it into the sauté pan with the rabbit and mix it with all the lovely cooking juices at the bottom of the pan. Let the whole thing cook together for another 20 minutes until done.

Test the rabbit for doneness by pricking the fattest part of the meat with the point of a small knife or a skewer. The juices that run out should be clear. Correct the seasoning before bringing the dish to the table.

I served this scrumptious dish with a basic polenta, also from L’Arte di Sacla.

I can’t recommend this beautiful book enough; it is full of wonderful recipes accompanied with mouth-watering paintings.

If you are passionate about Italian food, this is the book for you and we have two copies to giveaway!! So leave me a comment or email us via the contact page and a copy could be with you very soon!

:)

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