Pasta with Duck Ragu
Servings: four
This week, I had a craving for duck ragu. I dream of their succulence within rich tomato sauce. I bought a piece of duck breast from our favourite butcher.
Apparently, it’s quite a popular dish for celebrity chefs. Gooling brought me to Emeril Lagasse and Mario Batali. My own copy of Cook with Jamie contains one too.
This recipe is a simplification of Jamie Oliver’s recipe as I want to taste the gamey flavour of the duck in rich tomato sauce (from the duck fat) instead of witnessing the fight of flavours among orange, duck, and tomato sauce. For wine, I used the fruity yet powerful Chilean red from Maipo Valley (Cab. Sauvignon and Carménère).
Now I know why this is such a popular dish. It’s not difficult to make but the result is impressive. The meat is tender and the sauce complex making it the perfect sleep-inducing meal on a hot Sunday afternoon. After (his) washing the dishes, we snored away.
Ingredients:
300 g duck breast
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 onion, thinly sliced
2 carrots, diced
1 stalk celery, diced
1/4 cup of wine (preferably the one you’ll drink later with the dish)
1 can (400 ml) chopped or whole tomatoes
1 tbsp oregano (chopped if fresh)
Salt and Pepper
Olive oil
Directions:
Preheat oven at 200 degrees Celsius.
Pour 1 tbsp of oil into an oven-proof pan and and heat it on the stove. Salt and pepper the duck breast and sear both of its sides in the hot oil. Pop the pan into the oven and bake the duck breast for approx. 10-15 minutes.
Remove the cooked duck breast and set aside. Using the same pan, now full of duck fat, sautee the garlic and onion until soft and fragrant. Add the carrots and celery, deglaze, and cook until the water evaporates. Add the wine and cook until the alcohol evaporates and the sauce slightly thickens. Lastly, add the canned tomatoes and sprinkle in the oregano. Stir well.
Cook the sauce until it reaches the desired thickness. Meanwhile, cut the duck breast into cubes. Approx. 10 minutes before the sauce is done, pour in the cubed duck breast and its juices into the pan. Stir well to combine and correct the seasoning with salt and pepper.
To serve, place the cooked pasta (preferably parpadelle to match the chunky sauce) on a plate and top with the sauce. Pour a glug of olive oil over the sauce. Serve immediately.
