WELSH RABBIT (LITTLE FOOD CURIOSITIES) di Sylvia Garda

Sylvia ci offre una concreta ricetta per una pura illusione, quella del bocconcino gallese il quale, fin dalla sua nascita in epoca elisabettiana, con la storpiatura del nome in Welsh Rabbit (invece di Welsh Rarebit) solleticava, con una proiezione immaginaria, la presenza illusoria di carne di coniglio, in tempi piuttosto difficili per i contadini:  puro sogno alimentare 

Welsh rabbit  (Little food curiosities) di Sylvia Garda

Our French neighbours make our mouths water with the savory “croque monsieur” and the Italians keep the colour flying with “bruschette” and “crostini toscani” (simply delicious!) likewise in the U.K. there is  “quid pro quo” or pun of words about the Welsh “crouton”, that most children ( and practically everybody) call “Welsh Rabbit”, originally one way of sweetening up the pill, because in those days the rabbit was nowhere to be seen, being the rabbit a very basic snack  for poor peasants. So the Welsh Rabbit since Elisabethan times has been known as “Welsh rabbit”  to make people ideally savour over a richer morsel (in the old days even a rabbit was considered a bonanza!).

You can follow the old recipe. Ingredients: 4 oz. grated cheese (Cheddar or Lancashire); 3 table spoon of ale, butter,  pepper, salt, made mustard, 2 slices toasted bread. Put the cheese and the Ale into a small pan, stir over a moderate heat until  the mixture melts to a thick cream. Add the butter, salt and pepper and the mustard. Put it back over the heat, but keep it below boiling point. Put the two slices of toasted bread onto a heatproof dish, pour the cheese over them and place them  under a very hot grill until the cream bubbles and gets golden. The cheese will overflow the edges of the toast. Eat while  it is hot and serve with a frothy mug of ale.

(ottobre 2018)