During the winter I love comfort dishes like soups and stews. Here’s a Duck ragu that’s comforting and fancy enough for company. What is a ragu? It’s a meat based sauce that’s generally served with pasta. One of my friends makes it often and I love it. So, I decided to try and make my own. I was really pleased with the results.
As usual, I looked through several recipes before making my own concoction – but it’s largely based on a recipe by Mario Batali. I used duck breasts, instead of the legs in Mario’s recipe. I bought the duck at Whole Foods, as well as the dried porchini mushrooms. I nearly had a heart attack at the over $40 per lb price of the mushrooms – luckily you only need a little! But don’t skip them, they really add some depth, as does the tomato paste.
A note of caution – since this sauce really cooks down, do NOT season until the very end or your dish will be too salty!
Here’s the final product – yum! I must say, however, it’s not the easiest dish to photograph! So you’ll have to take my word on this one – I haven’t steered you wrong yet, have I?!
Ingredients
- 1 Tblsp unsalted butter
- 1 Tblsp olive oil
- 1 package duck breast (approx 1 lb)
- 1/2 large videlia onion, small diced
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 large carrot, small diced
- 1 stalk celery, small diced
- 2 cups chicken stock
- 1/2 cup red wine
- 1-14oz can petite diced tomatoes, drained (retain the juice)
- 1 1/2 oz dried porcini mushrooms
- 1 Tblsp tomato paste
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
Instructions
- Heat butter and olive oil in Dutch oven.
- Add duck breasts and brown on all sides.
- Add the onion, garlic, carrot and celery and cook until softened.
- Add the stock, wine, tomatoes and dried mushrooms and bring to a boil.
- Return the duck breast to the pot. Lower the heat and simmer, covered for 1 hour.
- Remove the duck breast from the heat. Cool and slice or pull the meat.
- Return the duck meat to the pot, stir in the tomato paste and simmer uncovered for 25-30 minutes, until the ragu thickens. Add the tomato juice if the ragu gets thicker than desired. Season with salt and pepper.
- Serve over pasta.
