Otherwise known as Duck Ragu. Duck legs are cheap. We are talking £1.25 for a leg. This is a blessing. There are two things in life which are bogglingly cheap and make my life better – they are duck legs and cans of Carlsberg.
Whilst my Carlsberg supply is as reliable as oxygen, duck supply can be poor at the best of times. I found 8 legs the other day in a Tesco metro and bought them all. I froze 5, roasted three for a duck salad, and we had one left. Tonight I used it making ragù di anatra – a duck meat ragu.
Duck makes a good change from beef and pork. Serves two with plenty of sauce for mopping up with bread… you could easily stretch this to four, but I am clearly a gut bucket.
First roast your single duck leg. 180 degrees for an hour. You should cook a batch of duck legs and just keep them in the fridge. You can make duck shepherds pie, duck spring rolls, duck salads (soy and honey dressing), confit, rillettes. It’s endless. The rendered fat you can freeze or store in the fridge for roasting potatoes.
Once the duck leg is roasted, rest for ten minutes then strip the meat from the bone and tear into small chunks. Take the bones and skin, crack the bones a couple of times with a knife and then simmer slowly in a small pan with about 3/4 of a pint of water with a couple of bay leaves.
While the stock is simmering, cook your soffritto. Half a large onion, celery stick and a medium carrot – finely diced and fried in a good couple of glugs of olive oil. Cook over a low heat for 10-15 minutes. As a guide to when it is done, it smells sweet and is stickier but not caremelised.
Add a glass of red wine, and reduce over a high heat for two minutes, then add the sieved stock and a tin of tomatoes, chuck in a bit of honey to take the edge off the tinned tomatoes. Check for seasoning and simmer gently for 2o minutes. Rest for twenty minutes and serve over fresh egg pasta such as tagliatelle, pappardelle or fettuccine or whatever you like.
A bit of dinner 