DUKAI
Recipe BookKitchen FoundationsSauces & Jus

Signature White Rabbit Ragù

Ragù Bianco di Coniglio

Rabbit, guanciale and white wine, bound with a butter bean purée nobody can see.

The production version of the white ragù, at ten portions. The rabbit is cut into small irregular pieces rather than minced, so it stays identifiable in the mouth, and the body comes from a butter bean purée blended and passed until it disappears into the sauce.

Written for approximately 10 portions

Cook this

The acidity at the end is not optional. The dish already carries butter, cheese and butter beans, and without the vinegar and lemon it tastes heavy.

Chef Paul Dukai

Ingredients

Serves 10

Rabbit

  • Rabbit meat, preferably leg meat1 kg
  • Guanciale or pancetta100 g
  • Olive oil40 g

Soffritto

  • Onion150 g
  • Carrot60 g
  • Celery60 g

Aromatics

  • Garlic, cloves2 each
  • Fresh sage, leaves6 each
  • Rosemary, small sprig1 each
  • Thyme, sprigs3 each
  • Bay leaf1 each

Liquid

  • Dry white wine300 ml
  • Rabbit stock or light chicken stock500 ml to 600 ml

The hidden body

  • Cooked butter beans120 g
  • Warm stock, for the purée150 g
  • Olive oil, for the purée10 g
  • Salta pinch

Finish

  • Butter50 g
  • Aged sheep's cheese30 g to 40 g
  • Lemon zestof half a lemon
  • White wine vinegar8 g to 10 g
  • Black pepper

Method

  1. Make the butter bean purée: blend 120 g of cooked butter beans with 150 g of warm stock, 10 g of olive oil and a pinch of salt until completely smooth, and pass it through a fine sieve. You want it smooth and almost invisible.

  2. Cut the rabbit into small, irregular pieces. Do not mince it: the rabbit should remain identifiable in the mouth. Season and brown it in olive oil, then remove it from the pan.

  3. Render the guanciale or pancetta slowly, add the onion, carrot and celery and cook gently for about 20 minutes. The soffritto should become soft and sweet but stay pale. Add the garlic and herbs.

  4. Add the white wine and reduce until almost completely dry.

  5. Return the rabbit, add the stock and the bay leaf, and cook slowly until tender.

  6. Remove the rabbit and reduce the cooking liquid. Add the butter bean purée and reduce gently until the sauce is silky and glossy, then return the rabbit.

  7. Mount with cold butter and finish with the sheep's cheese, lemon zest, white wine vinegar and black pepper.

Chef’s notes

  • The Marsala version, from the same document and kept as an alternative rather than the canonical wine: replace most of the white wine with dry Marsala, either 200 ml of Marsala with 100 ml of white wine, or 250 ml of Marsala on its own. Do not add it to the stock and braise in it. Brown the rabbit, remove it, build the guanciale and soffritto, add the garlic and herbs, then the Marsala, and reduce by about 75 percent before the stock goes in. The reduction is where the Marsala becomes concentrated and elegant.
  • For a plate that already carries sweetness, such as sweet potato gnocchi, the same document reduces the carrot in the soffritto from 60 g to 50 g and the olive oil to 30 g, with 8 sage leaves rather than 6. Too much sweetness makes the dish heavy and almost dessert-like.
  • The butter bean is completely hidden. It is there for silk and body, not for flavour.

Keeping

DUKAI storage guidance

Cool it quickly rather than leaving it out: to below 21°C within about two hours, and to 5°C or below within a further four. At 5°C or below, use within 3 to 4 days, or freeze it. Store it before the finishing stage where you can: the butter, cheese and vinegar go in at service, and a mounted sauce splits when it is reheated.

Allergens and diet

Milk, from the butter and the sheep's cheese. Celery. Sulphites, from the wine.

Also in the Recipe Book

Last refined · September 2026