Sicilian Duck with green olives and anchovies – Anatra a Papparedda cu l’ulivi

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.

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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.

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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).

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Reserve any juices that are in the bottom of the pan.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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