Hare Salmi

Ingredients:

Hare about 2 Kg

Strong-bodied red wine ¼ liter

Garlic 1 clove

Onions 2 medium-size

Carrots 3 medium-size

Green celery 3 leafstalks

Sage a few leaves

Rosemary a few leaves

Laurel 4 leaves

Cloves 3

Juniper 10 berries

Cinnamon ½ sticks

Red pepper  ½

Dry Marsala wine 1 little glass

Flour 3 tablespoons

Oil 4 tablespoons

Salt a pinch

Preparation

Cut the hare into eight parts after washing and cleaning it. Place the hare, the chopped vegetables, sage, rosemary and all the spices in a large bowl.

Then, pour in wine until meat is completely covered, store it in a cool place and leave to marinate for 48 hours, stirring occasionally. Drain the hare chunks and pat them dry. Then, cover with some flour using a tablespoon.

Heat the oil in an earthen casserole, fry the chopped onion and the slightly floured hare chunks, turning them over frequently. Pour the marinade and vegetables into the casserole after removing the bits of red pepper, then add salt and season to taste.

Cook gently for about 3 hours, stirring occasionally.

At this stage, remove the hare chunks, purée all the vegetables and finally pour them back into the casserole. Dilute 2 tablespoons of flour into the Marsala wine, mix them with the sauce and continue stirring until firm. In the end, add the hare chunks and cook for about half an hour.

The dish

This is a typical Italian dish.

There is no strong, primary flavor. As a matter of fact, due to the marinade process, the seasoning and meat seem to become one and the same thing. 
Therefore, we can say that we obtain a “complex” flavor, due to the good blending of ingredients. The main feature of a good salmi dish is the intense and homogenous flavor which it emanates. 

The wine 

This dish requires a medium-matured or strongly-matured wine, with fully developed flavors and perfumes.

The ideal wine is smooth, not too sour and reasonably tannic, since hare meat contains 4% fat, but is also somewhat “sweet” thanks to its glucide content (0.6%) which is enough to give it a smooth flavor. (It is important to consider the typical savage flavor of the hare, which perfectly blends with the aroma of mature wines). Another ingredient which determines the choice of a smooth wine as accompaniment is the small percentage of Marsala wine in the preparation. This is a slightly sweet, strong-bodied wine and has a remarkable alcoholic content, which somehow matches the “strength” of this dish.

The selected wine should also be slightly bitter in order to perfectly match the sourish game flavor.