CookEat Recipe
Braised Coot with Pappardelle
Coot and its gizzards braised with vegetables and tomato, served after broad pasta dressed with a sauce enriched with finely chopped cooked breast.
Method
Steps
Step 1
Gather the ingredients: 4 coots, legally supplied for human consumption, professionally plucked, eviscerated and jointed into quarters; heads, feet and wing tips removed; Their 4 professionally cleaned gizzards, each cut into four pieces; About 750 ml food-grade wine vinegar, or enough to moisten the pieces for marinating; 1 large onion; 2 small celery stalks; 1 large carrot; A small handful parsley; 120 g butter, divided into 80 g and 40 g; Salt, black pepper and a small pinch ground mixed spices; About 300 ml strained tomato purée, or 3 tablespoons tomato paste diluted in water; Water as needed to braise with plenty of sauce; 500 g fresh broad pasta ribbons such as pappardelle; About 40 g grated Parmesan.
Step 2
Use professionally prepared edible coot and gizzards from a lawful food supply. Put the quartered birds and gizzard pieces in a covered non-reactive dish with the wine vinegar. Refrigerate at 4°C or below for 1 hour, turning once. Drain well and discard the marinade. Do not rinse raw poultry, pass a hot skewer through it or use vinegar as a way to make spoiled meat safe.
Step 3
Finely chop the onion, celery, carrot and parsley together. Put them in a large heavy casserole with the 80 g butter, the drained bird pieces and gizzards. Season with salt, pepper and a small pinch of mixed spices. Cook over moderate heat, turning, until excess moisture has evaporated and the surfaces are lightly coloured.
Step 4
Add the tomato purée or diluted paste and enough water to keep a generous amount of sauce around the pieces. Cover and braise gently until all the bird and gizzard pieces are tender and at least 74°C, about 1–1½ hours or longer if needed. Add water during cooking so plenty of sauce remains.
Step 5
Lift the cooked pieces from the pan and keep them hot. Remove all the cooked breast meat from one bird and half the breast meat from a second bird, checking carefully for small bones, and chop it very finely. Strain the sauce, return it to a saucepan and add the chopped breast meat and the remaining 40 g butter. Heat through gently. Reserve some of this sauce with the remaining bird and gizzard pieces.
Step 6
Boil the fresh broad pasta in salted water until cooked, generally 2–4 minutes according to thickness or package instructions. Drain and toss with the remaining hot chopped-breast sauce and the grated Parmesan. Serve the pasta first, followed by the remaining coot and gizzards with their reserved juices.
Step 7
For homemade pappardelle, knead 300 g plain flour with 3 eggs into a firm smooth dough, adding only drops of water if necessary. Knead for 8–10 minutes, cover and rest for 30 minutes, then roll to about 1 mm and cut into broad ribbons. Use this batch instead of the 500 g purchased fresh pasta and cook it in the same way. Allow about 50 additional minutes to prepare it.
Step 8
For the separate boiled-bird-and-sausage variation, use one whole professionally cleaned coot and two small fresh pork sausages, about 100 g altogether, that fit loosely in its cavity. Put in a close-fitting pot, cover with water and simmer gently until tender, the whole bird reaches 82°C and both sausages reach at least 74°C, roughly 1–1½ hours or longer as needed. Remove the sausages and carve the bird; strain and serve the hot broth separately. These quantities are a practical two-person version and replace the tomato braise and pasta, rather than being added to them.
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