Bedtime stories for dinner

Adam Gopnik's discussion of food in literature* and one of this week's new dishes made me think of my sister's favorite bedtime story:

ONCE upon a time there were four little Rabbits, and their names were Flopsy, Mopsy, Cotton-tail, and Peter. They lived with their Mother in a sand-bank, underneath the root of a very big fir tree.

"Now, my dears,'' said old Mrs. Rabbit one morning, "you may go into the fields or down the lane, but don't go into Mr. McGregor's garden: your Father had an accident there; he was put in a pie by Mrs. McGregor.''

A fan of neither savory pies nor Potter-era English cooking, I maintain that had Peter been Pietro, he would've lost his brass buttons to avoid becoming a much tastier dish:

Braised bunny
Ingredients: rabbit, olive oil, leeks, celeriac, garlic, flour, salt, pepper, white wine.
Heat olive oil in a pan. Add chopped leeks (green part), celeriac, and garlic. Add quartered rabbit, dredged in flour. Let brown. Add salt and pepper. Add white wine (until almost covered) and let it simmer on the stove for about an hour and a half.

By the way, to all you poultry-eating vegetarians out there, rabbit is white meat.

* Thanks, Elise!
Photo credit: Mark Bridge
Original caption: "Cute enough to eat (but not quite large enough)"
http://flickr.com/photos/markbridge/147757763/