Italiano
Pan-cooked domestic duck with sautéed escarole
Ingredients for 4 people :
1 domestic duck, 100g Gaeta olives, rosemary, thyme, 1 lemon, 1 orange, 1 glass white wine, ½ chili pepper and chili powder and 2 unpeeled garlic cloves.
For the escarole : 2 escaroles, 1 garlic clove, 20 pitted Gaeta olives, anchovy fillets in oil, extra-virgin olive oil and salt as needed.
Directions :
Carefully burn off any remaining feathers from the duck then rinse it under running water and dry well using paper towels.
Cut the duck into pieces and rub the meat with extra-virgin olive oil and lemon juice. Put the meat in a bowl with the peel from the lemon, the orange peel without the white interior and the aromatic herbs and let it marinate in the refrigerator for a couple of hours.
Clean the escaroles and then boil and drain. Sauté the garlic clove, chili pepper and anchovies in a broad pan with 2 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil until the anchovies completely dissolve. Add the pitted olives, which have been cut into discs, and the escarole and sauté.
Remove the duck from the marinade and brown each side in a broad pan at a high heat. Add 2 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil, the unpeeled garlic, the olives that have been slightly crushed and douse with the wine. Immediately after sprinkle a pinch of powdered chili pepper on top, add a teaspoon of diced orange peel and the herbs from the marinade. Salt to taste and then cover and continue to cook for around an hour at a low heat until the meat becomes soft.
Serve preferably on pre-heated plates with a nest of escarole.
Wine to pair:
Alto Toscana Sangiovese Igt Petra
In this area of the Tyrrhenian coast, Val di Cornia, the Sangiovese has a particular complexity and tannic impact together with a distinct saline slant to the acidity which is less pronounced than in the grapes away from the coast. Alto has a bouquet centered on notes of underbrush, humus, cherry and violets along with hints of wild berries, raspberry and blueberry. The mouthfeel is typical of the variety: fresh and flavorful with an elegant structure and pronounced tannins, which are well-woven into the fruity flavor, and the aftertaste has a saline persistence.
Area of production: Val di Cornia, more precisely in the locality of San Lorenzo at an altitude of 80m above sea level. The soil is mostly clay and filled with rocks which, together with the pitch of the land, ensure perfect natural drainage.
Grape variety: 100% Sangiovese the vines of which are Guyot-trained in a vineyard with a density of 6,000 root stocks per hectare and a yield of around 8,000kg per hectare.
Production: The grapes are picked by hand towards the end of September with attention paid to nt damaging the fruit. Following a careful selection on sorting tables, the grapes are fermented in 100hl truncated-cone oak vats. After a long maceration, to boost its propensity to age, the wine ages for at least 24 months in 30 and 50hl Slovenian barrels. It is then blended with some minor filtration and bottled, aging for at least another 18 months in the bottle before sale.
Alcoholic content: 14.5%
Serving temperature: 18°C.
