Hot dinner: duck, black olive, and tomato ragu

 
Russell Norman20 September 2012

Duck, black olive, and tomato ragu from Polpo: A Venetian Cookbook (of Sorts) by Russell Norman (Bloomsbury, £25)

There is a meat restaurant in Venice called La Bitta. The owner, Debora, takes its mission very seriously; ‘No Fish’ she declares proudly on the menus and business cards. This dish was inspired by something very similar that our ead chef Tom and I had there. I remember we had a bottle of Amarone della Valpolicella, too, and it was a worthy companion. Duck legs are the tastiest part of the bird and have a deep, smoky flavour. This dish doesn’t suffer from shyness and the combination of tomatoes and black olives helps the duck deliver intensity and gaminess. You can eat this on its own but is goes very well with polenta or potato gnocchi.

For four to six

300g cherry tomatoes, halved

Flaky sea salt and black pepper

Extra virgin olive oil

5 duck legs

1.5 litres tomato sauce

1 large handful of good-quality black olives, stoned

1 large handful of green peppercorns

Black pepper

1 small handful of flat parsley leaves, chopped, to serve

Polenta or Gnocchi, to serve

- Preheat the oven to 180°C/Gas 4. Season the halved cherry tomatoes. Shake on a few splashes of olive oil and place on a baking tray in the oven. Roast them until they blister and almost collapse (about 25–30 minutes). Remove and set aside.

- Preheat the oven to 240°C/Gas 9. Take the duck legs, season, and roast until the skin is brown and crisp (about 10 minutes). Reduce the heat to 200ºC/Gas 6 and continue to roast until the meat is tender (about 1 hour). Set aside and strain the cooking juices for use later.

- By now, the duck legs will have cooled and you can pick the meat off the bone. Roughly chop the larger pieces and leave the smaller ones.

- Put the tomato sauce in a large pan on a medium heat, add the olives, peppercorns, some ground pepper and about 150ml of the duck’s roasting juices. Bring the sauce to a medium simmer for 30 minutes or so, until it is very thick and has no trace of water in it. Add the duck meat and continue cooking for 10 minutes.Just before you take the pan off the heat, add the oven-roasted tomatoes and a little parsley. Stir and serve.

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