It's all about the base

Passport & Plate - Nancy Silverton's Duck Ragu with pappardelle

United Kingdom | Thursday, March 5, 2015 | 5 photos

Ingredients
Serves 8

Soffritto

1/2 c. extra virgin olive oil
1 c. onions – finely chopped
1/2 c. carrots – peeled, finely chopped
1/2 c. celery, peeled, finely chopped

Duck
4 duck legs, skinned, cut apart at the joint, fat removed, rinsed and patted dry
1 1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. black pepper
2 T. extra virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1/2 c. Soffritto,
5 T. double concentrated tomato paste
2 c. dry red wine
3 c. chicken stock
4 fresh sage leaves

Tomato Sauce

This makes much more than called for in the duck recipe above, but can be frozen

1/4 c. extra-virgin olive oil
1 large onion, finely diced (about 2 cups)
1 T. kosher salt
1/2 t. pepper, plus more to taste
4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
half a medium carrot, peeled and shredded
3 T. thyme leaves
2 28 oz.cans whole peeled plum tomatoes, including their juices (preferably San Marzano)

Finishing

1 c. tomato sauce (recipe below)
28 oz. pasta (gnocchi / pappardelle)
1/2 c. thinly sliced Italian parsley leaves
1/2 c. grated Parmesan

For more detail, see here: http://nourishingvancouver.com/2012/07/03/duck-ragu-with-potato-gnocchi/

 

How to prepare this recipe
Soffritto
Heat the oil in a sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add the onions and cook for 20 mins, stirring frequently. Add carrots and celery, reduce the heat to medium-low & cook the veg, stirring often, for 3 hours, until it's a deep caramel colour & the veg are almost melted.

Duck
Place the duck legs in a dish & season. Refrigerate for an hour. Heat the oil & garlic over medium-high heat in a large Dutch oven & cook the garlic, stirring constantly for 2 minutes. Stir in the Soffritto & cook it for 1 minute. Move the vegetables to create a bare spot in the pan, add the tomato paste to that spot, & cook for 1 minute, stirring, to caramelize the tomato paste slightly. Add the wine, chicken stock, sage, and duck legs and bring liquid to a boil. Reduce the heat & simmer the duck legs for about 1 1/2 hours, until the duck is tender & falling off the bones. Let the duck cool to room temperature in the braising liquid.

Remove the legs from the liquid, & pour the liquid into a medium saucepan. Pull the meat off the bones, discarding bones & tendons. Add the meat to the pan with the braising liquid & bring the liquid to a boil. Reduce the heat & simmer the meat in the liquid, breaking it up as it cooks, until the liquid is reduced & the sauce has thickened. Taste for seasoning.

Tomato sauce
Heat the olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion, cook, stirring occasionally, until it is translucent - 10 mins. Add the garlic and cook 1-2 minutes, stirring constantly. Add the carrot and thyme leaves, stirring until the carrot is soft, 6 to 8 mins. Add tomatoes, bring to the boil, reduce the heat, and simmer stirring often, for 30 mins, until thickened.

Finishing
Combine 2 c. of the ragù with the tomato sauce, stirring occasionally - add hot pasta water to thin if necessary. Cook the pasta. Combine the two, cook for 2 mins, tossing gently. Add the parsley and some Parmesan. Spoon onto plates, add any remaining sauce and grate fresh Parmesan over top.

 

The story behind this recipe
I am Italian. You may not realise by looking at me - I'm a North London atheist-Jew, of Russian-Polish descent and my colouring's kind of Celtic, but cut me and I bleed linguine.

There’s a photo of me taken on my 13th birthday. My family are on holiday on the Adriatic coast and my parents have, unbeknownst to me, ordered spaghetti with tomato sauce for my breakfast, and it arrives with a candle stuck on top: happiest day of my entire teens.

My whole life, I’ve been searching for the perfect pasta dish. From trofie al pesto in San Fruttuoso, to spaghetti with pistachios and prawns in Sicily, I have eaten my way round Italy, so it’s little surprise that my favourite recipe is Italian - by way of Los Angeles’ chef Nancy Silverton.

Soffritto. Let’s talk soffritto. You might fry your carrot, celery, onion for fifteen minutes, twenty if you’ve nothing better to do. Nancy fries hers for 3 hours – count em, 3! And you have to babysit it the whole time. It’s not even like you can watch Netflix, because you have to stay present, stirring that damn soffritto. And the worst thing is, once you’ve tasted quite how rich and deep a level of flavour it imparts, you can never go back!
Then it’s the duck legs’ turn –another 2 hours, braising them in red wine and stock till they’re no longer on speaking terms with their own bones. You think you’re done? Not even close. You then need to prepare a separate tomato sauce (Speedy! Only 49 minutes) – and then there’s some finishing touches. This recipe basically takes a week to make. It’s a week well spent. Lush, tender, rich, hearty meat, topped with melting, salty parmesan. Silverton suggests you make your own gnocchi. Never going to happen. Do it with pappardelle – wide ribbons of tender egg pasta, with the tiniest bite. You have to love people quite a lot to spend the best part of a day making them a bowl of pasta – but isn’t that kind of the best feeling in the world –seeing the smile on their face at first bite?