Making a duck ragout/ragù with minced duck is not much different from making a good bolognese sauce.
It is the same cooking method, they are both slow cooked and have the same ingredients: the soffritto made by sautéing in extra virgin olive oil minced / finely cut onion, carrot and celery.
I use the same herbs and add a grating of nutmeg.
Wine and good stock are very much staples in my cooking, in this case I add white wine with the duck because it is a pale meat.
In this case the vegetables for the soffritto are not as finely cut as I would have liked, however my kitchen helper was in a hurry. I say this in a light tone, the sauce could have looked a little better, but it tasted good.
There are few little things that are different from making a bolognese and a ragù d’ anatra (duck ragout) to dress pasta:
The addition of a little milk or cream that is usual in the bolognese; this is because the duck is fatty. I watched the seller place whole duck breasts into the mincer so the fat is to be expected.
Because of this abundance of fat I also skim some of the fat off the surface once the ragout is cooked.
I add is less tomato paste. When I make a ragout with duck or game, I make a brown sauce rather than red.
Sometimes, I also may add a few dried mushrooms to enhance the taste. The liquid also goes in.
And there you have it:
Rigatoni con ragù d’ anatra (duck ragout).
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