mint

In those central European countries where people raise goats for dairy purposes, spring is the time when a lot of tender young milk-fed kid starts turning up in the local butcher shops. This is because about half the kids born each spring are male, and no dairy herd really needs more than one billy goat to keep things ticking along.

The southern Swiss canton of Ticino, where Locarno is situated, has as many herds of dairy goats as anyplace else in the country. Possibly there are even more, as the milder climate on the southern side of the Alps means the mountain herds will find more good grazing at the higher altitudes than they might elsewhere in Switzerland (and earlier in the year, too). This recipe was very likely devised as a local response to the yearly problem of how to deal with the springtime surplus of kid. And for times of the year when kid isn't in the local butcher -- or for those who don't care for the idea of kid whether they can find any or not -- this recipe is perfectly delicious with good lamb.

The technique of long slow simmering in wine and herbs is one that turns up in other Ticinese dishes, especially some involving rabbit. The addition of the cream at the end of the recipe produces a beautifully rich sauce, fragrant with sage and (a little unusually) mint and cinnamon, possibly speaking of some passing influence from further south and east in the Mediterranean regions. As for the rum, it may have been an ingredient from the beginning, or may have slipped into the recipe as a substitution for grappa in the days before that unique spirit was easy to obtain outside of Switzerland.

Click on "read more" for the recipe.