Description
A rich duck pasta sauce
Ingredients
Scale
- 2 duck legs
- 3 slices of bacon, finely chopped
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 1 carrot, finely chopped
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 200ml red wine
- 1 x 400g tin of Italian chopped tomatoes
- 2 teaspoons tomato paste
- 1 bay leaf
- Sugar or honey
- Olive oil
- Gremolata topping (optional):
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
- 1 tablespoon finely grated lemon rind
- 1 finely chopped garlic clove
Instructions
- Score the skin of the duck legs with a sharp knife and rub with the skin with salt, preferably seasalt.
- Roast for 1 hour at 180C skin side up, turning over halfway through and basting.
- Meanwhile start on the sauce.
- Fry the bacon in a large saucepan until crisp and remove with a slotted spoon.
- Add a little oil and fry the carrot and onion over a medium-low heat for 8-10 minutes until softened.
- Add the garlic for 1-2 minutes.
- Add the wine and cook down over a medium heat to reduce until thick and about a quarter of the volume.
- Add the tomatoes, tomato paste and bay leaves.
- Season with salt, pepper and a little sugar or honey.
- Bring to the boil and reduce to a simmer on a very low heat.
- After 1 hour roasting, heat the oven to 210C for 10 minutes and turn the duck back to skin side up to crisp.
- When the duck has cooled enough to handle remove the skin and shred the meat by hand.
- Add the meat to the sauce.
- I added a small amount of chopped duck skin to the sauce as well, but this is optional, you can just eat it or use it for something else.
- Cook the sauce for at least one hour, and up to four.
- Add water or a little white wine when the sauce starts to dry (I added about 1 glass of wine and 200ml of water over 3 hours, but use your judgment).
- Mix the parsley, lemon rind and garlic to make the gremolata.
- Serve with a thick ribbon pasta like fettucine, tagliatelle or pappardelle.
- Prep Time: 30 mins
- Cook Time: 2 hours