Pappardelle with Slow Cooked Duck, Porcini Mushrooms and Sage

Preheat the oven to 160°C

Rub the duck portions with some NoMU Poultry Rub, a touch of olive oil and season with salt & pepper to taste. Sear the duck in a very hot pan till the skin is deliciously crispy! Place in a small baking tray with the quartered onions, fresh sage, garlic and Marsala wine; cover with foil and cook in the oven for 1½ hours.

Check the duck half way through the cooking time, and add some more water or wine if necessary. When the duck is tender, remove from the oven and allow to rest before shredding the duck into smallish pieces. Set aside with the caramelized onions and sage.

Heat up some olive oil and butter in a large frying pan with a few grinds of NoMU One for All and wait until the butter starts to bubble, before searing the porcinis in the pan until beautifully golden. Add a pinch of salt to bring out the flavour of the mushrooms. Add the shredded duck, onions, sage and any juice left from the baking tray and toss gently with the cooked pappardelle so that the pasta is well coated with all the flavour. Check seasoning and serve immediately with a drizzle of truffle oil and shavings of parmesan on the side.

Serves 4

Wine suggestions

The sage might have pointed me towards a Chianti, but the duck and the mushrooms say Barolo or Barbaresco – examples of the tricky Nebbiolo at its best. The one I'll go for is a modern effort from Elio Altare, one of the region's best producers. Altare makes wines from different parts of Barolo; my choice would be the la Morra 2001, a far better vintage by the way than the overblown 2000 which was so heavily hyped by US critics.



Ingredients

  • 400 g pappardelle
  • 2 leg and thigh portions
  • of free range duck
  • 2 tsp NoMU Poultry Rub
  • 3 garlic cloves crushed
  • 2 onions quartered
  • 1 large bunch of fresh sage
  • 125 ml dry Marsala wine
  • 1 punnet (250 g) fresh porcinis
  • 2 tbsp butter
  • 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • NoMU One for All Grinder
  • 1 bunch of Italian flat leaf parsley
  • roughly chopped
  • 1 tsp truffle oil (optional) or
  • 1 truffle, thinly sliced
  • (white if you are very lucky,
  • otherwise black)
  • NoMU Just Salt & Just Pepper