Ingredients

Method

• 20 g dried porcini mushrooms, pieces or slices
• 1.5 litres low-salt chicken stock (be sure to use low-salt)
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 kg duck marylands (about 4)
• 1 brown onion, roughly chopped
• 1 celery stalk, grated using a box grater
• 1 small carrot, peeled and grated using a box grater
• 6 garlic cloves, finely minced
• 1½ cups (375 ml) pinot noir wine
• ¾ cup (195 g) tomato passata
• ½ cinnamon stick
• 2 star anise
• 2 bay leaves, crushed in your hand
• ½ tsp black pepper
• 1½ tbsp roughly chopped fresh rosemary leaves
• 1 tbsp plain flour
• 15 g unsalted butter, softened
• ¼ tsp cooking salt, if needed
For the pasta:
• 1 tbsp salt, for cooking the pasta
• 400 g pappardelle pasta (or other pasta of your choice)
• Freshly grated parmesan, to serve

Method

Ingredients

1. Soak porcini and reduce stock – Place the porcini in a bowl. Pour the stock into a large frying pan* over high heat (it will reduce faster than in a pot). Bring to the boil. Scoop out ½ cup (125 ml) of the hot stock and pour it over the porcini. Leave to soak for 30 minutes until softened. Lower the heat to medium–high, so the remaining stock is simmering rapidly, and reduce to 3 cups (750 ml), about 8–10 minutes. Pour into a measuring jug to ensure you have the right amount.

2. Porcini – Squeeze the excess liquid out of the porcini with your hands, reserving all the soaking liquid. Chop the porcini into 5 mm pieces, then set aside. Add the soaking liquid to the reduced chicken stock.

3. Brown duck – Heat the oil in a large pot* over high heat. Place the duck in, skin-side down, and cook until golden brown, about 4 minutes. Turn and brown the flesh side for 2 minutes until light golden, then brown the skin on the edges as best you can, about 2–3 minutes. Transfer the duck to a bowl and set aside.

4. Sauce – In the same pot, still over high heat, remove all but 3 tablespoons of the duck fat.7 Add the onion, celery, carrot and garlic and cook for 8 minutes until they halve in volume, reducing the heat if necessary so the vegetables don’t brown. Add the wine and simmer for 5 minutes until reduced by 50%. Add the passata, cinnamon, star anise, bay leaves, pepper and the reserved stock, pouring the stock in carefully to leave behind the last bit if there is dirt and grit from the porcini.8 Stir to combine.

5. Slow cook – Arrange the duck so it is submerged under the liquid. Once the liquid comes to a simmer, reduce the heat to low. Simmer very gently for 1½ hours, uncovered, checking every now and then to ensure the duck remains submerged. At the 1-hour mark, add the rosemary and chopped porcini.

6. Shred duck – Transfer the duck to a bowl and cover loosely with foil. Once cool enough to handle, remove the skin and shred the flesh off the bone with your hands. Shred fairly finely. Discard the bones. Finely chop half the skin

7. Thicken sauce – In a small bowl, mix together the flour and butter until a smooth paste forms.10 Stir the mixture into the pot, then simmer for 3 minutes. Add the shredded duck and chopped skin. Taste and add the salt only if needed (the reduced chicken stock provides plenty of salt). The duck ragu pasta sauce is now ready to use. Keep warm until ready to toss with the pasta. Don’t forget to remove the bay leaf, cinnamon stick and star anise!

8. Toss ragu with pasta – Bring a large pot* of water to the boil with the salt. Boil the pasta according to the packet directions. Just before draining, scoop out a big mugful of the pasta cooking water and set aside. Drain the pasta, then add the pasta to the warm ragu with ½ cup (125 ml) of the pasta cooking water. With the stove on medium heat, toss the pasta using two spatulas until the sauce thickens and is mostly clinging to the pasta, and the pappardelle is stained red. Use the reserved pasta cooking water to loosen if it gets too thick.

9. Serve – Divide among bowls and serve immediately, topped with parmesan!

Cook's note:

1. Porcini really add a beautiful, earthy depth of flavour into the sauce, so they’re worth getting. If you really can’t find them, use 1½ teaspoons finely minced anchovies in oil or anchovy paste and sauté with the onion.

2. Be sure to use low-salt chicken stock or the sauce will be too salty as the liquid is reduced significantly to concentrate the flavour.

3. Fairly widely available these days at grocery stores, poultry shops and butchers, this is the duck leg attached to the thigh. Using duck breast or just duck leg is not recommended for this recipe – they are quite lean.

4. A box grater is a nifty way to make the carrot and celery fine enough so they almost disappear into the sauce. Aim to make the strands shorter rather than longer. Nobody wants carrot spaghetti in their duck ragu! You could also use a food processor. Blitz until very fine. For the grated celery, you’ll end up with stringy celery bits. Discard this.

5. Or other dry red wine. If you can’t consume alcohol, use non-alcoholic red wine or just omit.

6. If you do not want to use all the ragu in one go, use 80 g of dried pasta and one-fifth of the ragu per serving.

7 .I don’t use all the skin because the sauce gets a little too rich. The remaining skin and duck fat can be used to roast vegetables. While the skin won’t become crisp – so you mightn’t want to eat it – the fat will impart great flavour into the vegetables.

8. Sometimes porcini will release grit into the stock. It will settle on the bottom of the stock jug so it’s easy to avoid pouring it into the pot.

9. If you’re struggling to fit all the duck, just arrange them as best you can to keep the meaty parts in the liquid. The duck marylands will shrink as they cook, so you can rearrange them during the cooking time.

10. This is called a beurre manié. It will thicken the sauce slightly so it will coat the pasta better.

LEFTOVERS The sauce will keep in the fridge for 3 days or freezer for 3 months. However, once the sauce and pasta are tossed together, it is best eaten straight away.

Find more pasta recipes here

Extracted with permission from 'Tin Eats: Tonight' by Nagi Maehashi. Published by Macmillan Australia. Retail price: R699. Photography by Nagi Maehashi.