Sacchétto di spezie
Tied up herbs. I have sage, thyme, oregano and bay leaf. It smells so good. Will throw this in the pot later.
Wine
Owing to her Bologna, Italy cooking style she used a lot of dry white wines. I prefer red. For this meal I’m using a DaVinci, 2017, Chianti. I paid a whopping $9 for it. The best deal ever.
Lots of fresh San Marzano tomatoes from the garden.
Tomato Concasse (Tomato gravy)
Fresh San Marzano tomatoes or Roma tomatoes
2 TBSP tomato paste
2 Garlic cloves
S&P to taste
1 TBSP Olive Oil
Tomato Concasse is the process of removing the skin from the tomato before chopping. I remove the seeds for aesthetics but the seeds are fine to eat and don’t change the flavor much if any.
Cut Xs on top and bottom of each tomato and boil for a minute. Rinse in cold water (shock) and peel off skin and place in a food processor and spin chunky. Gently fry the paste and garlic in a skillet. Strain the seeds out of the tomatoes with a colander, discard the seeds and add the tomatoes to the pot. Cook low and slow to cook away the liquid. Later will hydrate with wine.
Slice mushrooms and gently sauté in butter and a dash of olive oil.
Cut two slices into the chicken perpendicular to the bone. Cut all the way down against the bone.
Place flour in plastic bag, I will use a zip lock baggie, add salt and pepper and shake the chicken in the flour mixture.
Gently brown chicken in olive oil.
Gently browned chicken. Skin fried a little.
Sofrito
Typically sofrito is onion, carrots and celery. In this dish I used ½ chopped onions and ½ chopped green pepper (seeded) and sautéed them in the chicken drippings. Then added the tomatoes, ½ cup of red wine, ½ cup of chicken broth. Deglaze the pan, add the Sacchétto di spezie and cook low and slow for 30 minutes to reduce the liquid. Remove the Sacchétto di spezie. Notice how darker the gravy is getting. It almost has a slight coffee smell. Wonderful!
Ducks Mahal 