Ducks are not standard fare on Sicilian dinner tables. Ducks in Sicily are few and far between.
I am glad that living in Australia where ducks are pretty easy to find and more so in the last few years.
In Giuseppe Coria,’s book – Profumi Di Sicilia, I found one duck recipe
It is for a braised duck cooked with the following ingredients: Anchovies, garlic, parsley, heart of celery, white wine, rosemary and green olives.
I roasted the duck (on a rack so that the fat drains off) and make an accompanying sauce using the same ingredients as Coria suggested for the braise.
Here is the duck roasting in the oven. I stuffed it with some rosemary. I placed some potatoes in the fat that had dripped in the pan about 30 minutes before the end of cooking.
INSTRUCTIONS
Pre heat oven to 190C.
Dry duck with paper to obtain a crispier skin.
Ensure the opening at end of the duck is open to allow even cooking.
Place duck on a rack in a roasting tray.
Season with sea salt and freshly ground pepper and roast it.
My duck was 2k so I roasted it for 2×40 minutes= 1hr 20mins.
For the sauce:
Remove the duck, drain the fat (use it to roast vegetables, it also makes good savoury pastry, just like lard).
Reserve any juices that are in the bottom of the pan.
Using the baking pan, add a little extra virgin olive oil and over a low flame melt 4-6 anchovies in the hot oil.
Add 2 garlic cloves, chopped finely (or minced as some say). Stir it around.
Add about 1 cup of finely chopped parsley and 2-3 stalks from the pale centre of a celery also sliced finely. Stir it around in the hot pan for about 2 minutes…add salt and pepper to taste.
Add ½ cup of white wine and evaporate. Add the juices of the duck, or if you did not save them, add some meat stock – about ½ cup.
Add some chopped green olives last of all. I had stuffed olives so I used them….probably about ¾ cup full.
Heat the ingredients through, and there is your accompanying sauce.
And it looks much better in a gravy boat than it does in the pan.
A couple of days later I used the leftover sauce with the stock made from the duck carcase/carcass ( water, onion, carrot, celery, whole peppercorns and salt) and some mushrooms to make a risotto, and this tasted exceptionally good.
