Oven-roasted rabbit

Rabbit is leaner than chicken and more flavorful than most white meats — which is exactly why Southern Italian cooks have built a whole tradition around it. In Campania and Calabria, baked rabbit is Sunday food: unhurried, fragrant with rosemary and oregano, the potatoes cut large enough to hold their shape while they absorb the cooking juices from the meat. The result is crisp on the outside where the olive oil catches, tender through the center, and deeply savory in a way that a short marinade — lemon, garlic, oil — sets up long before the oven does anything.

The technique is straightforward and the ingredient list is short, which is the point. Southern Italian cooking at this register doesn't complicate what good raw material can do on its own. Rabbit dries out quickly if overcooked, so the potatoes serve a dual purpose: they insulate the base of the pan and signal doneness — when they're golden and the juices have reduced around them, the rabbit is ready. If you haven't cooked rabbit before, this is the version to start with.

You might also like:

• Rabbit Ischitana Style
• Rabbit Roll
• Microwave rabbit
• Rabbit Cacciatore
• Stuffed Pappardelle with Rabbit Ragù
• Rabbit stew with olives and sun-dried tomatoes
• Ligurian Rabbit