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 For the perfect dinner party this season, why not go Italian? – A sublime way to combine the traditional and the exotic! This complete menu allows you all the time to relax and enjoy your day while offering something divine to your guests in the evening.
Each course comes packed with flavour – distinctly individual and perfectly balanced.
To drink: the winedirect Italian Dinner Party Case
Starter
To drink: Tasca d'Almerita - Regaleali Bianco
To eat: Insalta di Funghi (Wild Mushroom Salad)
Ingredients
1kg mixed wild mushrooms (cep, chanterelle, pied de mouton, morel, oyster etc - . you can bulk out with cultivated chestnut mushroom for a more economical alternative)
a good few glugs of extra virgin olive oil
2-3 cloves garlic crushed to a paste with coarse sea salt
1 red chilli pepper chopped to very fine dice
4 unwaxed lemons
salt and freshly ground black pepper
lots of flat-leaf parsley, chopped
Method
Carefully wipe clean the mushrooms and in cut away any nasty bits. In the case of pied de mouton, scrape away the fibrous undersides.
Place into a colander and douse with boiling water – set aside to drain.
Heat the oil in a sauté pan and fry the chilli and garlic for a few seconds. Turn up the heat, add the mushrooms and toss in the pan for a few minutes. Season, turn out onto serving plates and sprinkle with chopped parsley and a little finely pared lemon rind. Drizzle over the oil from the pan and squeeze over a few drops of lemon juice.
Serve with slices of toasted ciabatta while sipping on Regaleali Bianco – a great wine with enough freshness and acidity to cut through the oil.
Main Course
To drink: Claudio Alairo - Dolcetto di Diano d’Alba “Costa Fiore”
To eat: Pappardelle con Coniglio (Pappardelle with Rabbit in a Rich Tomato and Wine Sauce
Ingredients
600g freshly made pappardelle
4 wild rabbits, jointed and including the livers and kidneys
8 large ripe tomatoes, skinned, de-seeded and chopped
2 large onion, peeled and finely chopped
4 plump cloves of garlic, skinned and finely chopped
3 thick rasher of smoked streaky bacon cut into lardons
750 ml red wine
2 tablespoons brandy
900ml rabbit stock
a few mushroom, sliced
a little flour
salt and freshly ground black pepper
a good pinch of dried oregano
2 bay leaves
3 sticks of celery
2-3 carrots
olive oil and butter
Method
Ask your butcher to joint the rabbits for you so you get two haunches (hind legs and thighs) and two nice pieces of saddle. The forelegs and ribcage are going to be used for making the stock. Remember to keep the livers and kidneys.
To make the stock, roughly chop the unpeeled carrot and the celery and put these in a roasting tray along with the outer peelings of the onion and garlic. Add to this the forelegs and ribcage of the rabbit chopped up into little bits. Sprinkle with a little olive oil, salt and pepper, and roast in a 200°C oven for 30 minutes. Bring the pan up onto the top of the stove and over a moderately high heat pour in 1 litre of boiling water and add bay leaves. Bring to the boil, stirring and scraping up all the residues from the bottom of the pan. Reduce the heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Strain through a fine sieve and reserve. All the bits from the pan can be thrown away now.
Put a good slug of olive oil and a knob of butter into a sauté pan over the heat and, when sizzling, add the onions and lardons. Cook until just beginning to brown at the edges then remove with a slotted spoon and set aside.
Rub the rabbit joints all over with salt and pepper and then roll them in flour until well coated. Fry the rabbit in the same pan you cooked your onions until well-browned all over - about 10 minutes. Take the pan off the heat and pour over the brandy. Flambé to burn off the alcohol. Return the onions and lardons to the rabbit and add the tomatoes, garlic, bay leaf and oregano. Pour over the wine and the stock and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat, cover the pan and simmer for 2 1/2 hours. Check every so often to see that the sauce is not drying out; if necessary, add a little hot water.
About 10 minutes before the end of the cooking time chop the rabbit livers and add these to the pan together with the whole kidneys and sliced mushrooms.
Cook the pappardelle in the usual way and drain. Have ready pre-warmed glazed terracotta pots and divide the pasta between them. Place the rabbit joints on top of the pasta and spoon over the sauce, which should be rich and thick. If the sauce is thin, you will have to cook it a little longer without the lid on to reduce it down. Try to be fair about how you apportion the servings and make sure each person gets one kidney. If you catch them in time, chuck out the bay leaves.
Dessert Course
To drink: Roberto Anselmi - I Capitelli
To eat: Pears in White Wine
Ingredients
8 ripe pears, Williams or Comice
1 litre white wine
400g caster sugar
1 stick cinnamon
2 or three whole cloves
icing sugar for dusting
mint leaves
Method
Begin by putting the wine and sugar into a large saucepan. Leave to stand while you carefully peel the pears, leaving the stalks on. Place the saucepan over the heat, bring up to boiling point and carefully stand the pears down into the liquid. Cover and simmer for 10-15 minutes until the pears are tender (the exact time will depend upon how ripe the pears are.) Remove the pears with a slotted spoon and stand up in a dish to allow them to cool down. Meanwhile, rapidly boil the sauce to reduce to a thick syrup.
Place one pear on each plate, spoon over the syrup then dust with icing sugar. Decorate with finely sliced mint leaves.
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