Eating Italy: A Chef's Culinary Adventure (14 page)

WHOLE ROASTED DUCK
with
MUSCAT GRAPES

Claudia’s nonna, Anna, kept a huge garden and raised chickens and ducks in the backyard. Anna would stuff the duck with garden vegetables and herbs and roast it in her wood oven with potatoes. Her son, Bruno, refined the recipe by replacing the potatoes with muscato grapes picked from the vines growing around their poultry coops. He peeled the grapes and added them to the roasting pan at the last minute so they would just melt in your mouth. When I first tasted the dish, Bruno joked,
“L’anatra stiamo mangiando è morto di un attacco di cuore quando vede il coltello,”
which means, “The duck we are eating died of a heart attack when it saw the knife.”

MAKES 4 SERVINGS

1 large duck, trimmed of excess fat (about 5 pounds/2.25 kg)

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

½ medium-size yellow onion, chopped (¾ cup/92 g)

1 medium-size carrot, chopped (½ cup/61 g)

1 medium-size rib celery, chopped (½ cup/51 g)

1 garlic clove, smashed

1 bay leaf

10 peppercorns

2 sprigs fresh thyme

2 sprigs fresh rosemary

2 tablespoons (30 ml) olive oil

6 leaves savoy cabbage, chopped into bite-size pieces

1 cup (235 ml) white wine

3 cups (750 ml) Duck Stock or Chicken Stock (
page 279
)

2 cups (185 g) peeled moscato grapes

Season the duck with salt and pepper inside and out. Mix together the onion, carrot, celery, garlic, bay leaf, peppercorns, thyme, and rosemary. Stuff the mixture into the bird and truss the bird with kitchen string to close the cavity and secure the legs.

Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C). Heat the oil in a large roasting pan or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the duck and sear until the skin is crisp and browned on all sides, 15 to 20 minutes total, turning a few times.

Turn the duck breast-side up and transfer the pan to the oven. Roast, uncovered, until the bird registers 155°F (68°C) when a thermometer is inserted into a thigh, about 1 hour. Remove the pan from the oven and transfer the duck to a cutting board. Pour off about half of the fat from the pan and reserve it for another use. Add the cut cabbage to the remaining fat and sauté over medium heat until tender, about 5 minutes. Add the wine and simmer until the liquid reduces in volume by about half, 5 to 6 minutes. Add the stock and the accumulated juices from the cutting board, and simmer until the liquid reduces in volume and thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon, 10 to 15 minutes. Stir in the peeled grapes, season with salt and pepper, and cook just until the grapes begin to wilt, 1 to 2 minutes.

Carve the duck into leg, thigh, and breast portions and serve with the cabbage and grapes, drizzling the sauce around the plate.

Note

To truss the stuffed duck, pierce three to four 4-inch (10-cm)-long wooden skewers through the flaps of skin on each side of the cavity opening. Weave kitchen string around the skewers like a shoelace to lace the bird shut, tying it off at the top. Position the bird breast-side up with the legs facing away from you. Loop a long piece of kitchen string beneath the ends of the drumsticks, crossing the string to make an X. Pull the remaining string down, passing it beneath the thighs and pulling tight to pull the legs toward the tail. Continue pulling the string along the body toward the neck and pass it beneath the wings. Flip the bird over so the legs are now facing toward you and cross the string over the back between the two wings, pulling tight. Loop the string beneath the backbone, pull it tight, and then tie it off with a tight knot.

FIG STRUDEL

Pina has five fig trees, and sometime in September, the fruit starts dripping with nectar. This strudel shows off the ripe figs because you just cut them in half, caramelize the cut sides in a pan, and lay them on the dough, which is then braided over the top. The dough recipe comes from my friend, Andrea Forcella, who owns Olfà pastry shop in Osio Sotto, about twenty minutes south of the old city in Bergamo. It’s sort of like puff pastry but has more stretch, because you roll out the dough and let it rest several times, developing gluten and creating that light, chewy texture of classic Danish pastries. It doesn’t take much hands-on time, but there is a lot of resting time, so it is a multi-day process. I like to warm up slices of the strudel in a buttered pan and serve them on a bed of toasted sliced almonds with a spoonful of Mascarpone Gelato (
page 287
). This recipe makes a pretty big strudel. But it keeps for several days and is so good it rarely sticks around that long.

MAKES ABOUT 16 SERVINGS

Danish Dough:

5½ cups (753 g) bread flour

⅔ cup (133 g) granulated sugar

¾ teaspoon (4.5 g) fine sea salt

2 large eggs

1 packed tablespoon (20 g) fresh yeast, or 2½ teaspoons (10 g) active dry yeast

5⅓ tablespoons (75 g) plus 1 pound (4 sticks/450 g) unsalted butter, at room temperature

Fig Filling:

⅓ packed cup (55 g) raisins, preferably both dark and golden

2 pounds (1 kg) fresh figs

4 ounces (1 stick/113 g) unsalted butter

1 packed cup (220 g) dark brown sugar

¾ teaspoon (2 g) ground cinnamon

⅛ teaspoon (0.75 g) fine sea salt

1 large egg

About 3 tablespoons (38 g) raw or turbinado sugar, for sprinkling

About 1 cup (235 ml) apricot jam, briefly warmed, for brushing

For the Danish dough:
Mix the flour, sugar, salt, eggs, yeast, 5 ⅓ tablespoons (75 g) of the butter, and 1 cup plus 1 tablespoon (265 ml total) of water in a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook on low speed until the flour gets incorporated, about 2 minutes. Change to medium speed and mix until the dough is sticky and elastic, another 4 minutes. Turn out the dough into a buttered bowl, shaping it into a ball. Cover with a kitchen towel and let rise in a warm spot until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

Line a large rimmed baking sheet with parchment. Turn the dough out onto the prepared sheet. Cover and let rest in the refrigerator overnight.

Roll the remaining pound (450 g) of butter between sheets of plastic wrap to an even 13 x 9-inch (33 x 23-cm) rectangle. Roll the dough on a lightly floured work surface to an 18 x 13-inch (46 x 33-cm) rectangle (the same width but twice as long as the butter). Transfer the rolled butter onto half of the rolled dough: remove the top sheet of plastic, invert the butter onto the dough, and then remove the remaining plastic, scraping the butter off the plastic as necessary to create an even bed of butter on the dough. Cover with the other half of dough and pinch the edges firmly to seal. Roll the dough out again to a rough 18 x 13-inch (46 x 33-cm) rectangle. Fold the dough so that the two short edges meet in the center, and then fold the dough in half (this is called a four-fold or book fold). Cover and refrigerate until the dough and butter are evenly chilled, about 30 minutes or up to 2 hours.

Position the dough on a floured work surface and roll out the dough again to an 18 x 13-inch (46 x 33-cm) rectangle. Fold the dough over itself three times to make a three-fold (like folding a letter), starting at a short edge. Cover and let rest in the refrigerator again, at least 30 minutes or up to 2 hours. Repeat rolling out the dough and folding into a three-fold two more times, positioning the seam-side away from you each time, and resting the dough in the refrigerator between each turn. Cover and let the dough rest overnight in the refrigerator. (The completed dough can also be covered and refrigerated for 2 days before assembling and baking the strudel.)

The next day, roll the dough to an 18 x 8-inch (46 x 20-cm) rectangle about ¼ inch (5 mm) thick. Gently fold the dough into a three-fold, transfer it to a large baking sheet, and unfold it on the sheet. Chill until the filling is ready.

For the fig filling:
Soak the raisins in warm water until softened, about 10 minutes. Drain, chop coarsely, and set aside.

Remove the fig stems and cut the figs in half lengthwise. Melt the butter in a large sauté pan over medium heat. When the butter is foamy and hot, add the figs, and cook until the cut sides are light golden brown, 4 to 5 minutes. Add the chopped raisins, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt. Cook until the mixture becomes very thick and lightly caramelized, 5 to 6 minutes. Remove from the heat and let cool completely. (The fig filling can be made ahead and refrigerated for 2 days before assembling the strudel. Bring the filling to room temperature before using.)

Place the filling on the rolled sheet of dough in a line about 3 inches (7.5 cm) wide, leaving about 2 inches (5 cm) on either side. Use a pizza cutter or sharp knife to cut lines about 1 inch (2.5 cm) wide diagonally through the exposed dough on both sides of the filling; it will look sort of like a Christmas tree (see
pages 82
and
83
). Beat the egg with 1 tablespoon (15 ml) of water. Braid the exposed strands of dough over the filling, bringing the opposite strands together and brushing the bottom strand with the egg wash before laying the opposite strand over it (this bonds the two strands together to create a seal).

Cover with a kitchen towel and let proof in a warm spot until almost doubled in size, about 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Brush the top and sides of the dough with the egg wash and sprinkle with the raw sugar. Bake until golden brown, 35 to 40 minutes. As soon as the strudel comes out of the oven, brush with the apricot jam.