Welcome to the culinary crossroads where tradition takes a detour into flavor innovation! With this pasta boscaiola recipe, we’re diving right into the heart of fusion cuisine. In this recipe, we combined the classic elements of the iconic Italian pasta and French duck confit. The result is like the Eiffel Tower having a rendezvous with the Colosseum – unexpected, yet harmonious. Our pasta boscaiola embodies fusion cuisine by seamlessly merging two regional classics into a culinary love affair. Prep in 10, cook in 25 and serve 4 lucky souls. Let’s dive right in and explore wine pairing first!
Wine Pairing Recommendations
When considering wine pairing with pasta, keep two key factors in mind. First, if your pasta is filled, like ravioli or tortelli, think about what’s inside when picking a wine. A cheesy filling might go well with a white wine, while a meaty one could match better with a red.
Second, if your pasta doesn’t have a filling, you may want to focus on the sauce when deciding on the appropriate wine pairing. A herby tomato sauce could pair nicely with a light red or a rosé, giving food a nice balance. If you have a creamy white sauce, go for a fuller-bodied wine like a red or a buttery Chardonnay.
For this pasta boscaiola, classic wine pairing choices include Italian Sangiovese and Barbera, or a lighter Burgundian Pinot Noir. But wait, don’t yawn just yet! Here comes the real game-changer! There’s a hidden food and wine pairing hero you’ve got to try – the remarkably underrated and budget-friendly Spanish Bobal rosé. On its own, the wine is uneventful. However, this wine stood out as the best food and wine pairing choice for our creamy tomato-based pasta boscaiola,
Recipe at a glance
| Course: Dinner | Cuisine: French/ Italian Fusion | Servings: 4 |
| Prep Time: 10 min | Cook Time: 25 min | Total Time: 35 min |
Ingredients:
- 2 duck confit legs with duck fat used for preserving them (homemade or store-bought)
- 4 oz. (224 g) of your favorite pasta (homemade or store-bought)
- 1 yellow onion
- ½ cup diced canned tomatoes
- ½ cup sun-dried tomatoes in oil
- ¾ cup heavy whipping cream
- ¾ cup white wine
- ½ lb. (226 g) mushrooms (brown, white or a combination of two)
- 4 Garlic cloves
- 1 tsp. sage leaves (dry or fresh)
- Salt and pepper (to taste)
- Parmigiano Reggiano to taste
What’s pasta boscaiola?
“Pasta boscaiola” is an Italian pasta dish that translates to “woodcutter’s pasta” in English. It is a hearty and flavorful dish typically made with a combination of pasta, mushrooms, pancetta or bacon, onions, garlic, and sometimes tomatoes or cream.
The exact ingredients can vary. Furthermore, different regions of Italy may have their own variations of the pasta boscaiola recipe.
What is duck confit?
“Confit” is a French term that refers to a method of cooking and preserving meat, typically poultry, by slowly cooking it in its own fat. In short, the process involves seasoning the meat with salt and sometimes herbs or spices, then cooking it at a low temperature in a bath of fat until it becomes tender. The fat acts as a preservative, helping to seal the meat and prevent spoilage.
The most common types of confit are duck confit and goose confit, but other meats, such as chicken and pork, can also be prepared using this method. The slow cooking process allows the meat to become tender while absorbing the flavors of the seasonings.
Once cooked, the meat can be stored in the fat, which solidifies when chilled, preserving the confit for an extended period. Before serving, the meat is often removed from the fat, crisped up in an oven or pan, and then used in various dishes.
Substitutions
For starters, do not worry if you cannot make duck confit at home. You can easily replace homemade duck confit with a store-bought version. Alternatively, you can substitute duck confit with chicken or goose confit. As a worst-case scenario, a finely shredded rotisserie chicken can be a passable substitute.
When picking pasta for this recipe, choose from fusilli, farfalle, orecchiette, tagliatelle, or pappardelle.
Lastly, when it comes to mushrooms, use any mushrooms you have. However, it’s best not to use either morels or chanterelles because both these mushrooms have a distinctive flavor that may not complement the other ingredients in our pasta boscaiola recipe.
Tips and tricks to make any pasta dish a success
Ideally, you want to have your pasta ready when your sauce is. However, if your pasta is ready but the sauce is still cooking, we recommend adding a dash of oil to the cooked pasta to prevent sticking.
If your sauce is ready before your pasta is, we recommend setting it aside and warming it up just a little bit before adding pasta to the sauce.
Additionally, we recommend adding cooked pasta to the sauce and then simmering the two together. This way, the sauce blends with pasta much better. Lastly, if you don’t have enough sauce, or if the sauce is too concentrated, loosen it up with a bit of water from the cooked pasta.
Tools to use in this recipe
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Instructions
1. Prepare Ingredients:
- First, remove duck leg confit meat off the bone and shred it into medium size pieces. Reserve the fat used for storing duck confit. It will be used for frying. Next, mince the onion, thinly slice garlic and mushrooms. Additionally, remove sage leaves off the stems. Set all the ingredients aside.
3. Preparing pasta sauce:
- To start on the sauce, first, heat a frying pan over medium-high heat. Then, add shredded duck leg confit and duck fat used for storing the confit. Fry till the duck fat meltes and duck leg confit brownes slightly. Any duck confit skin should be crisped. Once finished, about 5-7 minutes, remove duck confit to a separate plate and set aside. Make sure not to discard rendered fat in the pan as it will be used for cooking the rest of the ingredients.
- Using the same frying pan add the onions and lower the heat to medium-low. Then fry the onions until translucent, 3-5 minutes and add garlic. Give it a good stir and fry for about 1 minute, just enough for the garlic to soften slightly and become fragrant.
- Next, add sliced mushrooms to the pan and increase the heat to medium-high. Fry with onions and garlic till mushrooms are no longer translucent and begin to brown slightly, about 8-10 minutes.
- Add sundried tomatoes together with the oil used to preserve these. Give the entire mixture a good stir and let the sundried tomatoes heat through, 1-2 minutes. Then, very quickly add diced tomatoes and mix everything together. Cook the mixture for about 5 minutes. You want the tomatoes well incorporated into the sauce.
- Next add sage and immediately deglaze with white wine. Let the wine reduce by about 2/3.
- Add whipping cream and lower the heat to medium-low. Once the cream is well incorporated into the sauce and has reduced by about ½ it is time to turn off the heat. Ideally, your pasta should be ready at this time so that it can be added to the pasta sauce immediately.
4. Cook the pasta:
- Depending on the type of pasta you plan to use for this dish, and how long it needs to be cooked, you may want to start on cooking pasta first. To begin, bring a pot of water to a boil. Then, add a good pinch of salt to the water.
- Add pasta to the boiling water and cook according to the package instructions.
- Once cooked, drain the pasta and add to the finished sauce immediately.
5. Adding pasta to the pasta sauce:
- If you timed cooking pasta and pasta sauce perfectly, all you need to do, is add pasta to the pan with a sauce, mix everything together and bring your pasta covered in sauce to a simmer on a medium-low heat. You need to stir pasta and sauce together to make sure that pasta absorbs as much of the sauce as possible. This step should take only 2 minutes.
6. Plate pasta alla boscaiola:
- Spoon the creamy pasta boscaiola onto individual plates.
- Grate fresh parmigiano reggiano and generously add on top of the plated pasta
Recipe Card
Pasta boscaiola with duck confit recipe
Ingredients
- 2 duck confit legs together with duck fat used for preserving confit homemade or store-bought
- 4 oz. 224 g of your favorite pasta (homemade or store-bought)
- 1 yellow onion
- ½ cup diced canned tomatoes
- ½ cup sun-dried tomatoes in oil
- ¾ cup heavy whipping cream
- ¾ cup white wine
- ½ lb. 226 g mushrooms (brown, white or a combination of two)
- 4 Garlic cloves
- 1 tsp. sage leaves dry or fresh
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Parmigiano Reggiano to taste
Instructions
Prepare Ingredients:
- First, remove duck leg confit meat off the bone and shred it into medium size pieces. Reserve the fat used for storing duck confit. It will be used for frying.
- Next, mince the onion, thinly slice garlic and mushrooms. Additionally, remove sage leaves off the stems. Set all the ingredients aside.
Preparing pasta sauce:
- To start on the sauce, first, heat a frying pan over medium-high heat. Then, add shredded duck leg confit and duck fat used for storing the confit. Fry briefly, till the duck fat meltes and duck leg confit brownes slightly. Any duck confit skin should be crisped. Once finished, about 5-7 minutes, remove duck confit to a separate plate and set aside. Make sure not to discard rendered fat in the pan as it will be used for cooking the rest of the ingredients.
- Using the same frying pan add the onions and lower the heat to medium-low. Then fry the onions until translucent, 3-5 minutes and add garlic. Give it a good stir and fry for about 1 minute, just enough for the garlic to soften slightly and become fragrant.
- Next, add sliced mushrooms to the pan and increase the heat to medium-high. Fry with onions and garlic till mushrooms are no longer translucent and begin to brown slightly, about 8-10 minutes.
- Add sundried tomatoes together with the oil used to preserve them. Give the entire mixture a good stir and let the sundried tomatoes heat through, 1-2 minutes. Then, very quickly add diced tomatoes and mix everything together. Cook the mixture for about 5 minutes. You want the tomatoes well incorporated into the sauce.
- Next add sage and immediately deglaze with white wine. Let the wine reduce by about 2/3.
- Add whipping cream and lower the heat to medium-low. Once the cream is well incorporated into the sauce and has reduced by about ½ it is time to turn off the heat. Ideally, your pasta should be ready at this time so that it can be added to the pasta sauce immediately.
Cook the pasta:
- Depending on the type of pasta you plan to use for this dish, and how long it needs to be cooked, you may want to start on cooking pasta first. To begin, bring a pot of water to a boil. Then, add a good pinch of salt to the water
- Add pasta to the boiling water and cook according to the package instructions.
- Once cooked, drain the pasta and add to the finished sauce immediately.
Adding pasta to the pasta sauce:
- If you timed cooking pasta and pasta sauce perfectly, all you need to do, is add pasta to the pan with a sauce, mix everything together and bring your pasta covered in sauce to a simmer on a medium-low heat. You need to stir pasta and sauce together to make sure that pasta absorbs as much of the sauce as possible. This step should take only 2 minutes.
Plating pasta alla boscaiola
- Spoon the creamy pasta boscaiola onto individual plates.
- Grate fresh parmigiano reggiano and generously add on top of the plated pasta
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