Pappardelle is a well-loved type of pasta in Tuscany – it is traditionally prepared with the whole hare, part of it is minced and used for the sauce that will dress the pappardelle and another part is cut into large chunks and served as a second course. Duck is also used as an alternative.
This is one of the most traditional recipes, pappardelle with hare sauce or, as they say in Pisa like in Florence ‘on the hare’.
Serves 6
Ingredients
For the pasta:
- 150 gr. plain flour
- 150 gr. 00 flour
- 3 egg yokes
- 1 whole egg
- a pinch of salt
For the sauce:
- 1 hare
- 1 onion
- 1 stalk celery
- 2 carrots
- 3 bay leaves
- olive oil
- 100g peeled tomatoes*
- 1 glass red wine
- meat stock
- salt and pepper
Preparation
Marinate the hare overnight in water, red-wine vinegar, onion, celery, garlic and rosemary. Drain the meat, brown over a quick flame for a few minutes and drain again and continue as above.
Chop the onion, celery and carrot finely and sauté in oil. Chop the hare in pieces and brown lightly for a few minutes then add the wine, the tomatoes, the bay leaves, salt and pepper and cook over a slow flame for about three hours occasionally adding stock to keep it from drying out. When the meat is cooked, de-bone it and put it back into the sauce.
While the meat is cooking prepare the pasta.
Mix the flour together, add the eggs and knead until smooth and even. Allow to rest for 30 minutes or so then roll it with a rolling pin or with a pasta machine to a thin layer and cut it into strips 10 cm. long and 1 ½ cm. wide. Bring salted water to the boil and boil the pappardelle for 2/3 minutes then serve in warm plates with the hare sauce.
*Some say that the original recipe had no tomato, using the animal’s blood instead, in fact this recipe was particularly loved by the Etruscans (tuscanyarts on Etruscans) and they couldn’t have included tomatoes for obvious reasons. This may be true for the old recipe but today you can use tomato, although you must always be cautious it’s not hare in tomato sauce, (100 g are more than enough) at home and in restaurants, tomato is used in the hare sauce.
Why is this recipe called on the hare and not with hare?
From the latin “de” that denotes an arguement, it’s a linguistic detail and it means that it’s such an important topic it can’t be reduced to a simple recipe, THE hare here underlines a symphony of taste and not just an ingredient.
In the area around Siena – pappardelle pasta is substituted with Pici (Deborah has beautifully explained and shown what Pici are about).