Easter rabbit

This year the Easter rabbit arrived early. It was tasty.

All joking aside, I have eaten rabbit stews few times in a restaurant before, but now it was time to try to cook it myself at home.
The recipe comes from a Jamie Oliver book, Jamie's Italy.

Straight from the oven.

 Ingredients:

• For the rabbit
• One medium rabbit
• 14 slices of pancetta
• olive oil
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 4 sprigs fresh rosemary
• For the filling
• 2 Italian sausages, I used my sage salsiccia
• a handful of bread crumbs
• shredded zest of 1/4 orange
• a handful of shredded sage

Place the pancetta slightly overlapping on an oiled greaseproof paper and place in the fridge. The oil makes the pancetta release easier later. The pancetta is needed so that rabbit does not become dry in the oven.
Preheat simultaneously the oven to 200 degrees.

Rows of pancetta on an oiled greaseproof paper.

Mix batter and be a bit cautious with how much orange zest that is used. I kind of accidentally used 1/3 from a large orange and it broke through in taste a little too much.
When it came to the Italian sausages, I used my sage salciccia. It seemed Italian enough.

Stuffing.

Before the filling is placed in the rabbit, it may be a good idea to look inside it to see if there are any surprises to the chef. In the rabbit I had the heart, liver and kidneys where still there. I roasted these to have tried it and to get the chef treat while waiting for the rabbit to finish in the oven.
Rub then the rabbit with oil, salt and black pepper.
After these steps are completed rabbit with stuffing.

A stuffed rabbit.

Take out the pancetta from the refrigerator and place the stuffed rabbit on it. When the rabbit is rolled in the pancetta, you need to tie it down with a little string.

All rolled up ready to be tied.

Insert rosemary sprigs and place the rabbit in a roasting tin. I also tied the legs together a bit so that everything would fit better in the oven.

A few twigs of rosemary and it is ready for the oven.

 After a hour in the oven the rabbit is ready to eat, here with some potatoes and carrots.

Ready to be enjoyed.