Slow-braised duck ragu

I love cooking duck in a low oven when I'm home all afternoon. It's warm, it's cosy and it makes the whole place smell amazing. It’s the type of comfort food that's comfy even before you get to the eating part!

Take a couple of duck legs, throw them in a pot with some veggies and wine and sit back while the pot does the work for you. The meat becomes so tender it falls apart and almost melts in your mouth.

Rich and deep in flavour, it’s a lip-smacking, quacking dish.

Serves: 2 hungry adults

Prep time: 30 mins (from chopping to popping in oven)

Cook time: 3 hours

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Ingredients

2 duck legs

2 sticks of celery (finely chopped)

1 large onion (finely chopped)

1 large carrot (finely chopped)

1 leek (finely chopped)

2 cloves of garlic (crushed and finely chopped)

1 can good quality chopped tomatoes

3 sprigs of fresh thyme

1 fresh bay leaf 

1 tsp dried oregano

1 tbspn (heaped) tomato puree

250ml (1 large glass) of red wine

250ml good chicken stock

Method

Turn the oven on to 140°c.

Drop a glug of olive oil into a large, heavy based pan (one you have a lid for) over a high heat. Pat the duck legs dry with some kitchen towel and season generously with salt. Carefully place them into the pan, skin side down. Let the sizzle for around two minutes until just starting to brown and turn to cook the other side for another 2 minutes. Once slightly browned, remove them from the pan, set aside and turn the heat down to medium.

There'll be a fair amount of duck fat in the pan so watch out for spitting and spluttering when you throw in the onions, carrots and celery. Give them a stir every now and then to make sure you’re not overdoing anything and after 5 minutes add the leeks and a big pinch of salt. Stir through and cook until the leeks have softened.

Add the garlic and stir for a minute before making a little well in the middle to drop the tomato puree into. Stir the puree, gradually bringing the veggies into it and combining. Add the bay leaf, thyme and oregano, turn the heat up and add the wine. Scrape the bottom of the pan and let it bubble fiercely for a couple of minutes until it’s reduce by about half before adding the stock. After another couple of minutes add the tomatoes and stir through.

Get your duck legs and place them into your bubbling pot of goodness, this time skin side up, submerging them but for the peaks popping out the surface. Put the lid on and whack it into the oven.

At this point you’ll probably need to clean your hob 😬

Let about 2 hours pass before taking it out the oven for a check. Give it a little stir and a taste, a pinch of salt, lid on and back in the oven.

After another hour remove from the oven. Gently remove the legs and set aside to cool down for 10 minutes. Carefully pull the skin off the top of each leg and discard along with the bay leaf and thyme sprigs. Use your hands or a pair of forks to pull the meat apart and shred. Pop the shredded meat back in the pan, stir through until the sauce coats it all, taste for seasoning and put it back in the oven for the final leg.

After about half an hour, turn the oven off but leave the duck sitting inside, keeping warm until whenever you’re ready.

Before you use it, make sure to scrape around the edges to get all those crispy little flavour bombs into the sauce.

It goes brilliantly with parppadelle or rigatoni. Remember to stir the ragu through the pasta with plenty of cooked pasta water to loosen and give a silky smooth finish.

Serve with lashings of freshly grated Parmigiano Regiano and black pepper.

Tips

  • Take the duck legs out and leave at room temperature for 20 minutes before starting.

  • There’s a lot to chop and prep. Try to chop your onions, carrots and celery to roughly the same size. Score the leek down the middle to open it up and rinse under water to get rid of any dirt before chopping.