Slow Cooked Duck Leg Ragù

Ingredients

• 4 duck legs, bone-in
• 300 ml chicken stock
• 6 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 x 400g tins chopped tomatoes
• 2 carrots, finely diced
• 2 celery stalks, finely diced
• 2 tbsp tomato puree
• salt and black pepper
• 2 onions, finely diced
• 4 sprigs fresh thyme
• 400 ml full-bodied red wine
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 3 bay leaves
• pappardelle and grated Parmesan, to serve
• Crusty ciabatta, to serve

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 160°C fan. Pat the duck legs thoroughly dry with kitchen paper — water means steam, and steam means no browning. Season generously all over with salt and pepper. Heat the olive oil in a large ovenproof casserole over a medium-high heat.
2. Sear the duck legs skin-side down in two batches if your pan is tight — don't crowd them, or they'll steam in their own moisture instead of building that deep golden crust. Six to eight minutes skin-side down until the skin is deep golden brown and the fat has rendered into a generous pool, then 3 minutes on the flesh side. Lift out and set aside.
3. Pour off all but 2 tablespoons of the duck fat (save the rest in a jar — it is gold for roasting potatoes). Add the onion, carrot, and celery to the same pan, scraping up any stuck bits as they release. Fry over a medium heat for 8 minutes until soft, sweet, and just starting to catch at the edges.
4. Add the garlic and tomato purée and stir for 2 minutes until the purée darkens a shade and smells sweet rather than sharp. Watch the garlic — fragrant and pale gold is what you want, no more than 30 seconds before the purée joins it. Burnt garlic turns the whole ragù bitter.
5. Tip in the lentils and stir to coat in the rusty paste. Pour in the red wine, scrape the base of the pan, and let it bubble briskly for 5 minutes — the sharp alcohol smell should fade and the liquid should look syrupy.
6. Add the chopped tomatoes, chicken stock, thyme, and bay leaves. The stock and wine are doing the real work here — they break the tinned tomatoes down into something that tastes of fruit rather than tin. Stir, then nestle the duck legs back in skin-side up so the liquid comes halfway up the legs.
7. Bring to a gentle simmer, cover tightly, and transfer to the oven for 2 hours. The duck is ready when the meat shrinks back from the bone and a fork slides through with no resistance.
8. Lift the duck legs onto a board. Discard the thyme sprigs and bay leaves, then simmer the sauce on the hob for 10 minutes until it looks glossy and deeply red and a spoon dragged through leaves a brief trail. Pull the meat from the bones in big chunks, discarding skin and bones, and stir it back through the reduced sauce.
9. Taste, season, taste again — adjust the salt and pepper now, not at the table. The lentils and duck both drink salt, so it usually needs more than you'd think.
10. Salt the pasta water generously — it should taste like the sea, and this is your only shot at seasoning the pappardelle itself. Cook until al dente, then drag the pasta straight into the ragù with tongs and toss with a splash of the starchy pasta water until every ribbon is glossy and coated.
11. Plate the pappardelle into warm bowls, spoon over any extra ragù from the pan, shower with the grated Parmesan, drizzle with extra virgin olive oil, and scatter the torn basil over the top. Freezes well in airtight containers for up to 3 months.