Rostit, the traditional dish eaten in many towns and cities all around Catalonia on the day of Festa Major (the local patron saint festivity).
It consists of duck or rabbit (or sometimes chicken) confit in a sauce made of onions, tomatoes and wine and seasoned with laurel, toasted almonds and black pepper, and accompanied by sweet botifarra or similar pork products.
Recipe for rostit d’ànec (duck) under the cut (gluten free and lactose free).
Ingredients for a family
6 duck legs
500 gr of bones and duck (or chicken) butcher’s leftovers
6 sweet botifarres (traditional Catalan sausage, skip this if you can’t find any in your country)
2 onions
2 tomatoes
bay leafs
1 glass of “vi ranci” wine (a dry traditional wine from Catalonia and Alacant made through an oxidation process. If you can’t find it, you can use another old wine)
toasted almonds
1/2 cinnamonn stick
salt
black pepper
For the confit leg:
6 5-cm-long pieces of pork rib
1/2 garlic bulb
500 g pork lard
extra virgin olive oil
salt
black pepper
1 little bundle of aromatic herbs
Preparation
Season with the salt and black pepper the ribs and leave them to rest. In a casserole, put the lard on low flame. Add the olive oil. When the fat is a bit hot, submerge the ribs, the herbs bundle and the crushed garlic in it. If it isn’t completely covered, add more olive oil. Cook it on low flame for 2 hours. Then turn off the fire and let it rest inside the olive oil.
Season the duck and brown it on medium flame in a casserole with the bones and the butcher leftovers, with some spoonfuls of the ribs’ fat. When it looks golden, take it out of the casserole, but leave the bones and butcher leftovers in it.
Take away the excess of fat and use it to make a sauce with the cut onions in 4 parts, the bones and the butcher leftovers. To make a soffritto, when the onions are golden, add the tomatoes cut in small pieces, let it reduce and get concentrated, adding small spurts of water from time to time. When it is concentrated, wet it with the vi ranci (old wine) and let the alcohol evaporate.
At the casserole, toast the duck, the bay and the cinnamonn, and wet it with a big spoonful of water. Let it cook half covered on low flame for 1 hour, stirring the pieces and adding some hot water from time to time.
When the meat is tender, take away the bones and the butcher leftovers and add the botifarres with some holes made with the knife (so the inside is better cooked), and a spurt of water, and cook it for 10 minutes. At half the time, turn them over.
Make a sauce with the mashed almonds and the confited garlics, then add it. Cook it for 5 minutes.
Heat the rib in the same fat and serve it with the juice of the rostit. It will be tastier if you prepare it the day before.
