The promised duck ragu recipe:
2x duck legs or breasts
1 stick celery
2 shallots
1/2 fennel bulb
Fresh or dry rosemary
Fresh or dry sage
2 crushed garlic cloves
400ml tinned tomatoes
250ml red wine
400ml chicken stock
Olive oil
Sweetheart cabbage
Put two duck breasts or legs, skin side down into a casserole pot with some olive oil. Fry on a medium heat for eight minutes, don’t move them around, but don’t let the skin burn. Once golden and the fat rendered, turn over and cook for a couple of minutes on the other side.
Take the duck out and set aside.
Add chopped shallots, celery and fennel to the pan with herbs and garlic. Soften on a low heat in the residual duck fat and oil for five minutes. Add more oil if needed.
Pour in a large glass of red wine, turn up the heat & reduce.
Add tomatoes and chicken stock, return duck to the pan bring to the boil then reduce the heat and put on a lid. Simmer gently for one hour.
Remove the duck from the pan. If using duck breasts discard the skin. Shred the meat and add back to the pan. My sauce was a bit too liquid at this point, so before returning the meat I turned up the heat and reduced for a few minutes until it was the right consistency.
Warm through and pour over buttery sweetheart cabbage, cut into pappardelle shape. Delicious!
It’s a Paola Maggiulli recipe (look online for The Tiny Italian - she is absolutely lovely), very slight tweaked to make lower carb. I don’t know if the red wine tips it over, but presumably you could add extra chicken stock instead, but it just won’t be quite as delicious.