Duck Ragu
This recipe is my homage to Venice, a city I love. One sunny October, having sung morning service for the second time in St Mark’s, we got the Vaporetto to Murano, the one that meanders through all the islands. We sat on the seats on the outside stern of the boat, picking our ice cream coloured fantasy holiday homes, feeling peckish. After a wander round the shops, we had a late lunch in a restaurant that had a jetty over the laguna, where we ate duck ragu, watched the water and enjoyed the last glorious rays of autumn sun.
When I got home I made my first attempt, trying not to lose the holiday glow. A little too tomatoey and not duck flavoured enough, the first attempt did not match my memory of the flavour. After a little research into traditional ragus, I found a lot of recipes that cooked the meat in a milk mixture, so the second attempt was embarked upon, this time the red wine was overwhelming. By the third attempt I had a version that I was happy with, rich, warming and simple, yet because it’s duck, luxurious and fit for a special Saturday evening supper.
This even makes the hairy Italian smile.
Ingredients
Two duck legs
A soffrito of...
Onion - 1 large or two small
Celery - 2 sticks
Carrot - 1
(basically a mix of finely chopped veg listed above in Italian, but it makes you sound clever.)
Milk - 1 pint
Tomato paste x 2 dessert spoons heaped
White wine - 1 pint ( I tend to use a pinot grigio, but any gentle white will do - nothing too acidic or dry)
Chicken stock jelly pot
Rosemary - 1 large sprig
Bay leaves x2
Cinnamon - quarter teaspoon
Garlic
Depending on how much sauce you like on your pasta, this will serve between 4 (Italian style sauce amount) and 2 (Brit style sauce amount).
Method
Bring out a large casserole dish and put on the hob. From cold, put the duck legs skin side down and slowly let the skin brown and the fat render out. This should take about 10 - 15 minutes, you will need to play about with the temperature, you want a slow sizzle.
Remove the duck legs from the pan and there should be enough fat to drain off a little and put the soffrito in the pan, to sweat, you will probably need to lower the heat a little. You want to soften the veg with a slow browning, add a pinch of salt and sugar to the mix to help. Add the garlic in the last minute of cooking.
Once the veg has browned, turn up the heat and add in the 2 dessert spoons of tomato paste and let it cook out for a minute or two, to take the powdery raw edge off. You will need to keep stirring so the sugars in the paste don’t catch.
Then add in a pint of white wine to boil off the alcohol. Give it a good stir so the tomato paste mixes through well.
Warm the milk in the microwave for a minute and then add to the pan.
Add the duck legs, stock jelly do dah, two bay leaves, rosemary and cinnamon.
Put in the oven for 2 hours - check it doesn’t dry out.
After 2 hours in the oven, pull the duck legs out and de-skin and strip the meat from the bone. Add the meat back into the pan and after probably adding a little water, give the mix a stir and pop back in the oven for another half hour.
Eat with pappardelle or rigatoni - or any quite chunky pasta.
Top tips
Whole milk, hot or warmed through to prevent curdling/separation once added to the hot sauce, but don’t worry if it does separate, long cooking will bring it back together.