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Leporem Passenianum (Hare à la Passenius)
Leporem Passenianum (Hare à la Passenius) is a traditional Ancient Roman recipe for a classic dish of a lightly-smoked rabbit or hare roasted with wine that's served with a wine sauce. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic Ancient Roman version of: Hare à la Passenius (Leporem Passenianum).
prep time
20 minutes
cook time
60 minutes
Total Time:
80 minutes
Serves:
4
Rating: 
Tags : Game RecipesAncient Roman Recipes
Original Recipe
Leporem Passenianum: leporem curas, exossas, extensum ornas, suspendes ad fumum. cum coloraverit, facies ut dimidia coctura coquatur. levas, asparges salem, assas, oenogaro tanges, adicies in mortarium piper, ligusticum, fricabis, suffundes liquamen, vino et liquamine temperabis. in caccabum adicies oleum modicum, facies ut ferveat. cum ferbuerit, amulo obligas. leporem assum a dorso tangis, piper asparges et inferes.
Translation
Hare à la Passenius: Clean and bone the hare. Extend the legs [of the animal] and suspend in woodsmoke until it colours and is half done. Take out, sprinkle with salt, and roast, basting with wine sauce. While cooking, pound in a mortar pepper and lovage. Pour over these liquamen and blend with gravy [from the roast]. [Pour] into a pan with a little olive oil and bring to a boil. Thicken with starch. Pour [this sauce] onto the back of the roast hare, sprinkle with pepper and serve.
Modern Redaction
Ingredients:
1 rabbit or hare (about 1.2 kg)
For the Smoking Mixture
60g demerara sugar
25g tea leaves
100g white rice
200ml white wine
For the Sauce:
1/2 tsp freshly-ground black pepper
1 tsp
lovage seeds (or celery seeds)
200ml chicken or game stock
100ml white wine
juices from the roasting tin
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp cornflour (originally wheat starch, amulum, would have been used)
freshly-ground black pepper, to garnish
Method:
Line a wok with kitchen foil. Mix together the rice, demerara sugar and tea and place in the base of the wok. Set over high heat and cook until the mixture begins to smoke. Grease a trivet or cooling rack with oil, set in the wok, place the rabbit on top, cover with a lid and take off the heat and set aside to smoke for 30 minutes.
After this time, remove the rabbit from the wok and place in a roasting tin. Drizzle over a little of the wine then place in an oven pre-heated to 170°C and roast, basting occasionally with the remaining wine.
As the rabbit is roasting, prepare the sauce. Pound together the pepper and lovage seeds in a mortar. Moisten with the meat stock and white wine then turn into a pan and mix in any pan juices from the rabbit. Whisk in the olive oil then bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook for 20 minutes. At this point, whisk the cornflour to a smooth slurry with 2 tbsp water. Beat into the sauce until smooth, bring back to a simmer and cook until thickened.
When the rabbit is done, arrange on a serving dish and pour over the thickened sauce. Garnish with freshly-ground black pepper and serve.
Find more recipes from Apicius' De Re Coquinaria along with information on Apicius and his cookbook, all part of this site's Ancient Roman recipes collection.
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