Welsh Rabbit

Welsh Rabbit is a funny name for multiple reasons.  It's just silly sounding, first of all, especially since it doesn't seem to have anything to do with what it is (which is cheese sauce on toast), and especially when someone says "rarebit" instead of rabbit.  But once you know where the name came from, it's actually even funnier.  It's basically a big dis of the Welsh.  Since it is a meatless dish, made to use up leftovers or make due when the day's hunt went badly, it came to be known as "Welsh Rabbit" as an insult, as in, "those men in Wales are terrible hunters."  Those crazy Englishmen.  They sure know how to throw the insults!  (Like in Family Guy: "Oh Reginald....  I disagree!")

I love cheese sauce in all forms.  I love Welsh Rabbit's Scandinavian, French-adopted cousin, fondue.  Like fondue, Welsh Rabbit is traditionally a way to get dinner on the table when all you have is stale bread, cheese, and some sort of wine or ale.  However, for whatever reason, I've just never gotten around to actually serving Welsh Rabbit.  Ever.  I am not sure why this would be.  I've made a million versions of cheese sauce to have on and in numerous types of things, just never toast.  Well, I finally got around to serving it for dinner yesterday.  It was delicious and easy and I have absolutely no freaking clue why such a meal wasn't already in my cheese-loving repertoire.  Shame on me.  I'll make up for it by serving it regularly from now on.

I made my Welsh Rabbit with white wine, and I used cheddar cheese, swiss, and a little monterey jack.  The toast I simply brushed wtih a little olive oil and sprinkled with parmesan before baking.  I served half the toasts with chopped tomatoes and half without to see how that went, and I actually did like the tomatoes very much.  But, come on, there's not much you can do to white wine-cheese sauce over bread to make it bad. 

I also boiled some cauliflower to have on the side, so I basically just piled the toast, tomatoes, and cauliflower on the plate and just doused everything in the cheese sauce.  Yum, right?  Of course.

Happy eating!