This has to be one of my favorite way to use the ‘unwanted parts’ of a waterfowl. Most people will only take the breasts out of a waterfowl and discard the rest. The legs, the gizzard and the heart are then never used by waterfowlers because they have a strong taste or are too tough. However, they are great candidates to be used in confit to create wonderful dishes, such as cannelloni, or manicotti. My Italian friends will cringe at this recipe, but It will surely make you enjoy waterfowl like you have never done before. Enjoy!
The Best Waterfowl (Duck) Confit Cannelloni Pasta
Course: MeatsCuisine: ItalianDifficulty: Medium6
servings30
minutes40
minutes1
hour10
minutesIngredients
- Stuffing
1.5 pounds of waterfowl confit (Homemade waterfowl confit recipe coming soon!
For now, follow this recipe:
https://www.chowhound.com/recipes/slow-cooker-duck-confit-11834)225 g of white mushrooms, chopped in 1 cm (1/2″) cubes
425 g of ricotta cheese
2 cups of baby spinach, roughly chopped
1 egg
- Pasta
5 fresh lasagna egg pastas (about 10 cm x 20 cm) or 10 cannelloni rolls
1/2 cup of mozzarella cheese, shredded
- Sauce
2 tbsp. of vegetable oil
1 small onion, diced in 1 cm (1/2″) cubes or smaller
3 cloves of garlic finely diced
1 L of strained tomato sauce
1 tbsp. of dry basil
1 tbsp. of dry oregano
2 tbsp. of sugar
3 tbsp. of balsamic vinegar
250 mL of water
salt and pepper to taste
Directions
- Making the stuffing
- Pre-heat your oven at 375F. You will need it for the final product.
- Heat a large skillet under medium-high heat until hot. Add the duck confit and stir for 1-2 minutes. The fat that was stored with the confit should coat nicely the pan. Then, add the mushrooms. Stir them all together to break apart the confit and mix with mushrooms. At this point, stir every minute or two to allow some caramelization and “crispy bits” to form. After 10 minutes, remove from heat.
- In a large bowl combine all the stuffing ingredients and stir well until you get an uniform mixture.
- Making the sauce
- Heat a medium pot under medium-low heat. Add the vegetable oil, the onion and the garlic. Let them slowly heat while stirring occasionally.
- When the garlic gets fragrant, it should take about 5 minutes, add the rest of the sauce ingredient to the pot.
- Bring the sauce to a simmer. You may need to turn up the heat.
- Once the sauce is lightly bubbling, remove the pot from the heat.
- Assembly
- Take a large deep oven-safe dish (ceramic ideally) and cover the bottom of the dish with about 1/4 of the sauce.
- Cut the lasagna pasta in half width wise to obtain two 10 cm x 10 cm sections.
***If using cannelloni rolls, skip this step.*** - With your a spoon, place an even layer of stuffing in the pasta. The pasta should be plyable enough to allow you to easily roll your cannelloni.
** If using cannelloni rolls: stuff the cannelloni rolls with a spoon while blocking one end with your hand. **
- Once filled, place the filled cannelloni (seam down if using lasagna pasta) in the sauced dish.
- Repeat steps 2-4 for all the pastas.
- Cover the pasta with the rest of the sauce.
- Cover the plate with aluminum foil and place in the oven for 20-25 minutes or until the pastas are soft
- Finishing touches
- When the pasta are soft, cover the pastas with the mozzarella cheese.
- Change your oven settings to broil. Cook the cheese until bubbling and lightly brown. Then, remove from the oven and let it rest for 5 minutes.
- Optionally: serve on a plate with diced basil and freshly ground black pepper.
Substitutions: Since we do not always have success when going outdoors or not everyone practices hunting, here are a few ideas to substitute the harvested ingredients:
- Substitute the waterfowl confit with store bought confit.
- Substitute the waterfowl confit with pulled pork.
- Substitute the waterfowl confit with 300 g of bacon and double the ricotta cheese and spinach.
- For a vegetarian option: double the ricotta cheese and spinach, and add 200 g of parmesan cheese to the stuffing.
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