Loretta Sebastiani

Loretta Sebastiani
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Duck with chestnuts
( Anatra con le castagne )

Our original home cooking

Duck with chestnuts is a recipe of mine. It's a tasty, nice-to-see main dish. It's a so refined recipe you can choose it for a celebration menu or your Christmas menu if you want to astonish your guests. Recipe ideal for autumn and winter meals. It is a Mediterranean diet recipe for its ingredients and cooking method but not to be eaten frequently.

difficulty: easy

time: 1 hour 30 minutes

calories: 434 (kCal)

Ingredienti / Dosi per 6

  • 1 1.5kg (3.3 pounds) duck, cut into pieces
  • 100g (3 1/2 ounces) fresh young onions, chopped
  • 2 tablespoons dried chives
  • 1 tablespoon dried parsley
  • 1 dried sage leaf
  • 2 orange juice
  • 200g (7 ounces) peeled chestnuts
  • 400g (14 ounces) peeled tomatoes, cut into pieces
  • 2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 little glass of lemon-flavored liqueur (Italian limoncino)
  • Salt
Difficulty:
easy recipe
Time:
preparation: 20 minutes
plus the time for cutting the duck
cooking: 70 minutes
total: 1 hour 30 minutes
How many calories in a serving?
Calories: 434 (kcal) 22 % - 1816 (kJ)
Protein: 44.8 (g) 90 % GDA
Total fat: 21.8 (g) 32 % GDA
Total carbohydrate: 14.3 (g) 6 % GDA
Sugars: 9.4 (g) 11 % GDA

Download free PDF version (212 download).

Recipe for duck with chestnust

Preparation and cooking

  • - Prepare duck.
    Singe duck to be able to remove any remaining feathers more easily.
    Cut the duck into pieces. If you are not very experienced ask the butcher to do it.
  • - Put in a large pan olive oil, onion, sage and duck pieces.
    Let all fry lsightly for few minutes.
    Add lemon-flavored liqueur (limoncino) and let it evaporate partially.
    At this point add orange juice and tomatoes.
    Season to taste with salt and continue cooking, half-covered, until your meat is tender and cooking juice is well reduced.
    Add boiling vegetable stock (or hot water) only if necessary.
    You need about an hour to complete cooking but real time depends on duck quality.
    Add chestnuts, chives and parsley 20 minutes before turning off the stove.

Just before serving

  • - Serve your duck with chestnusts hot, sprinkled with cooking juice.

Note

Tips

  • - You can also use frozen chestnuts
  • - You can cook this dish some hours ahead.

Menu planning

  • - As I have specified before, duck with chestnuts is an elaborated recipe, ideal for your special occasions in fall and winter and certainly not for your every day menu.  I think it is very suitable during the Christmas holidays.
  • - It is not easy to choose the right dishes to combine to duck with chestnuts. If you want to serve a full Italian menu, I suggest you veal pate accompanied by raw ham as starter, pasta or rice topped with mushrooms as first course and a seasonal dessert to serve after duck dish. Links to recipes in the next paragraph.
  • - Choose deep-fried vegetables as side-dish.

Useful links for this recipe

Loretta

What's the right wine for " Duck with chestnuts "?

Pair Rossese di Dolceacqua (red wine from Liguria - Italy) to duck with chestnuts.