Mirto (myrtle) is a Mediterranean shrub found more particularly in Sardinia, its berries are used to prepare a local liqueur but they are also dried to be used as aromatic herb. They do look like juniper berries but have a less pungent and sweeter aroma, more like blackcurrant, and they are perfect with the rabbit.
For the wine choose a well structured, quite tannic and fresh red, with delicate aroma and no exaggerated colour or extract. I would normally use a Burgundy but any good quality Pinot noir will do the trick ; it’s also perfect to drink with the rabbit ! Above all keep away from merlot and any such like, if in doubt go to the nearest video rental and get a copy of Sideways…

Serves 4

1 rabbit, already gutted and cut in 8 pieces
Potato starch or corn flour
2 spoons duck fat
10 shallots peeled and cut in halves
Half a bottle of red wine
2 spoons thyme flowers
6 dried myrtle berries
Salt and pepper

Mix the starch with good amount of pepper and pass the rabbit pieces in this mixture until evenly covered.
Heat up the fat in a cast iron pot and fry the rabbit on all sides on high heat until golden, reserve in a dish. Lower the flame and throw out the excess fat and burned starch from the pot.
Put the shallots in the pot and keep on low heat until they turn translucid (few minutes). Put back the rabbit pieces in the pot, add the wine to the left-over starch, stir and pour over the rabbit, add in the thyme and mirto berries, give a good stir. Cook covered over very low heat for 20-30 minutes, turning the rabbit pieces and stirring occasionally, until the meat is well cooked and the sauce has thickened.
Serve with steamed potatoes and what’s left of the wine.

Photo credits: I took the shot but Piperita edited it, it’s rather amazing how modern technology can turn a rubbish snap into a half decent picture !

Roast beef is one of my mother’s all time favourite (and, honestly, one of the few thing she can cook… to perfection!). She normally makes it in summer, cutting the meat very thinly, and serving it cold, but in winter I prefer it hot, thick and BLOOOOODY!!!
It is so simple to make it good!

Serves 4

1 kg of beef, ask your butcher about the best cut to use
Salt
Pepper
Bay leaves
Rosemary

Take out the meat form the fridge at least one hour before to cook it.
Preheat the oven at 220° C.
Roll the meat in salt and pepper: you need to coat it evenly.
Lay many bay leaves and few rosemary branches on the bottom of a ovenproof dish. Lay the meat over the herbs bed.
Cook it for 45 minutes if you wanted rare, for more if you like your beef medium rare or well done (honestly, what’s the point if you don’t get it rare???).
Let it stand for 10 minutes before to cut it.

P.S. I would like to point out our magnificent Laguiole set! It cuts perfectly, as all Laguiole!

Before to publish the last recipe for sunday roast, the piece de resistance, I give you the schedule I followed to make everything…
To make Sunday roast you won’t need more than two hours, but really intense!

First make the horse radish sauce and let it stand in the fridge, but remember to take it off at least 30 minutes before serving.
Then take the beef out of the fridge: you need it at room temperature.
Preheat the oven at 220° C.
Begin with the potatoes: peel and cut them, then parboil them.
While they are parboiling, prepare the meat and lay it in the ovenproof dish.
Hot the fat for the potatoes.
Drain the potatoes, put them in the hot fat and then in the oven.
After 10 minutes put the beef in the oven.
Prepare the Yorkshire pudding batter.
When it lack 25 minutes to the end of the cooking, eat in the oven the oil for the Yorkshire pudding for 5 minutes.
After 5 minutes, add the batter and cook the puddings.
When your time is up, begin serving the potatoes, then cut the meat, then serve the puddings.

And after this little marathon, enjoy your meal with your family!!!