My Table - The Maltese Table
By Raquel Neofit
Column for Vanilla Magazine
The Maltese table, like so many of the great European cuisines, is one heavily-laden with food, so if you’re invited to a Maltese event, make sure you arrive hungry because, as Joseph Matina explains, the servings are huge, and the food just keeps coming.
Joseph Matina was still a child when he left his homeland of Malta for the shores of Australia. And while he was only 12-years-old, he still remembers the aromatic scent of his favourite rabbit stew, cooked at home by his mother on weekends or special occasions.
He also remembers weekdays filled with fresh fish and seafood. ‘My father and grandfather were fishermen and fishmongers, so we had a lot of fish in our diet. But Sundays were always special. We always had something different on Sundays,’ he says.
Maltese cuisine is rich with rustic, peasant-style dishes that have been passed down from generation to generation. But there are many other cultures that have influenced their cuisine over the years. Invading forces who occupied the island brought with them flavours including France, Italy (in particular), Sicily, Germany, Spain and the UK – even some Arab countries also influenced their cuisine.
One thing is for sure; seasonality is at the heart of Maltese food. Fish and seafood feature heavily in their diets along with seasonal vegetables, rabbit and pork.
Thousands of years ago they had a thriving olive industry, which is slowly on the rise again.
When fish are in excess you’ll find lumpuki pie (fish pie), and soups rich in octopus. Kapunatla is a favourite (the Maltese version of the French ratatouille) and the crusty sourdough bread that the Maltese are famous
for. Desserts feature ricotta cheese in pastry tubes called kannoli and helwa tat-Tork (a sweet combination of whole and crushed almonds with sugar).
Whether it was baked pasta (pasta il forn) or bragoli (Italian beef rolls with spaghetti) Joseph’s favourite was rabbit stew (stuffat tal fenek).
‘I remember my mum frying the onions in preparation to make the sauce, and the frying of the rabbit, which was half-cooked. In a separate frying pan, she would fry the heart and the liver and she would let me have it for morning tea,’ he says.
Although many Maltese dishes originated outside Malta, the rabbit stew is Malta’s signature dish.
‘Rabbit was always cheaper than other meats, so the majority of families opted for rabbit,’ he adds.
In Malta, rabbit became such a traditional dish that there are now social gatherings where people and families get together and enjoy what is called a fenkata – where all meals served on this occasion contain rabbit meat and rabbit sauce.
Joseph remembers the rich tomato sauce with the taste of bay leaves, wine, garlic and onions, with a pinch of red curry to enhance the taste and the aroma, cooked until it was falling off the bone.
Most rabbits eaten in Malta are home-grown and fattened for the table. The average Maltese person can taste the difference between a wild rabbit and a home- grown rabbit straight away!
JOSEPH’S RABBIT STEW – Stuffat tal fenek
The first course of this dish is served with spaghetti, topped with the rabbit sauce stew. The second course is when
the rabbit was served.
“The rabbit was always home-bred and although in recent times I have settled for wild rabbit, it just does not have the same taste or texture – it tastes very gamey.”
I have always joked... what do you need to cook a rabbit? Most people will give you most of the ingredients, but the answer I expect is “a rabbit”. If you do not have a rabbit, you cannot cook one.
On a more serious note: You will need a rabbit of course.
Serves 4
• 1 rabbit
• 1 bottle of passata
• 2 cans peeled/crushed tomatoes
• 4 medium potatoes sliced in chunks • 4-6 bay leaves
• 6 garlic cloves – two chopped
finely and four chopped in half • 1 onion finely chopped
• 350 mls cooking red wine
• 90 mls extra virgin olive oil
• A pinch of curry powder
• Salt and pepper
• 1 tsp oregano
• 3 tsp tomato paste
• 250 mls water
• 350 gms frozen peas
Instructions
Cut the rabbit into small pieces.
Place the rabbit in a bowl with two whole garlic cloves and the red wine. Also add one or two of the bay leaves and place in the fridge to marinate. Ideally it should marinate for at least 12 hours, turning occasionally.
When ready, strain the liquid into a container to use later and throw the bay leaves and garlic away.
Place the pieces of the rabbit in a frying pan until brown and cooked half-way.
Place the passata and the two cans of tomato with the water until it becomes smooth in a medium pot.
Add the rabbit pieces to the sauce, then add salt, pepper, oregano and curry onto the pieces. Also add the potatoes, peas and the bay leaves as well as the marinade liquid, and simmer slowly.
Once simmered, let it sit for at least three hours before serving.
NOTE: As I mentioned previously, this sauce works well on top of pasta as an entrée.
