Duck Ragu

As the dinner poll from last week ended, I found myself standing at the poultry counter at whole foods in search of duck legs. Alas, the best they could do was frozen duck breasts. Mark doesn't like duck but I convinced him this would be good. I decided to make Duck Ragu from Mario Batali's, Molto Italiano: 327 Simple Italian Recipes to Cook at Home. I really doctored this recipe a lot but he gave me a great base. So here it is. This recipe took a long time (but not that much work) and was well worth the wait. We both loved it. Mark said it was the best pasta sauce he'd ever had and he's been to Italy so that was quite the compliment!

Duck Ragu
Makes 4 generous servings
Ingredients:
2 duck breasts
1/4 cup olive oil
3/4 cup chopped onion (I used vidalia)
1 chopped carrot (peeled)
4 ounces of chopped white mushrooms
5-6 whole fresh sage leaves
3 thinly sliced cloves of garlic
1 cup of chicken broth
2 cups red wine
6 basil leaves chopped
1 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper
1 tsp garlic powder ( I ended up adding this because I wanted more garlic at the end)
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Heat oil over medium high heat in a large sauce pan (I used an 8 qt) until almost smoking. Season duck breasts on both sides with salt and pepper. Add to pan and cook, turning occasionally, until browned on all sides, 12-14 minutes.
Remove duck and drain about 3 tbsp of the oil from the pot. Add all veggies, sliced garlic and sage and reduce heat to low. Cook 7-9 minutes until soft.
Add wine, broth and tomato paste and bring to a boil. Add duck, lower heat again and simmer covered for one hour. Remove duck and cool. Continue simmering sauce.

Once duck is cool enough to handle, pull apart meat into bite sized pieces. Add meat back to sauce, along with sugar, red pepper, garlic powder, sliced basil. Salt and pepper to taste. Simmer uncovered for 30 minutes until reduced and thickened. Serve on top of your favorite pasta! We had it over angel hair with a side of my summer squash toss. Yum!