Meaty Marinara Sauce

Now, I've never been good with making pasta sauce...Specifically with fresh tomatoes.  Time and time again I've tried tried to thicken the sauce, and time and time again I can never *right* where I want it via consistency.

So this time around I took a different route.  I tried Pomi marinara sauce for the first time.  Needless to say everything came out perfectly.  I loved it.

I recently learned that few stores have stopped ordering Pomi due to the fact that not many have purchased the product.  So I guess I'll be going to back to the drawing board until I do get my hands on some more Pomi.

My recipe for my sauce is below.

What I had done was use

1 onion
3 large garlic cloves
1 Jimmy Dean's Sage Sausage roll (I happened to have one in the fridge...So why not?)
And some sections of the pig's head...Fat included.
2 Pomi's Marinara sauce
Italian Seasoning
red wine
Anchovy Paste

So what I did was dice the garlic and put that aside.
Dice the onion, put that aside.
Cube the pig fat and put in another container
Cube the meat and put that into another bowl.

I oiled the pan and cooked the sausage till well browned and put that back to the side, then went back and oiled the pan and threw in the onion.  Once it had turned iridescent I put in some of the pig fat and had that cook for awhile in low to medium heat.  When the fat had appeared to have also become iridescent and had shrunk in size I added the sage sausage meat as well as the rest of the pig's head meat.

I then added both containers of Pomi, added a fairly decent amount of Italian herbs, a squirt of Italian anchovy paste, a good dash of red wine, salt, and pepper.  I then let it sit overnight as I wanted the flavors to set in.

Goose

I've always wanted to cook goose.  Never found a recipe that stood out to me.  Lo' and behold I found a recipe in Jamie Oliver's Magazine - the Christmas edition.  While I've cooked duck, I've been been exceedingly curious about goose.

I learned that goose is NOT like Turkey and that it is, indeed a fatty bird.  Much like duck - tho' it was not duck either.  I also had learned that when it was cooked wrong it would taste 'livery'....Which, well in my first experience (so far)...It hasn't.

What I did in preparing for this bird, was to dry brine it in the fridge...Which was, according to the recipe was cover the duck in salt and 5 spice, both inside and outside of the bird.  Cover the bird and leave it in the fridge over night.....And this, indeed, create a nice crispy skin once the bird was cooked....I also had punctured the skin above the breast as that was where the fat would slowly melt out.

I then cooked the bird for 350 for 4 hours.  The skin was crispy, and delicious.  The meat...For the most part, fell away easily.

While underneath the pan...There was a slew of fat swirling an swishing in the bottom container...Something I had not expected.  I pulled apart the meat and put it into two loaf pans.  Covered it with fresh Sage Leaves and then covered it with the fat laden 5 spice, orange drizzled fat and pressed down.  I then covered it and put it into the fridge.

The next day, I cooked it for 300 for approximately 20 minutes.  This was the results.  The 5 spice melded into the meat and the skin was extremely crispy.  The goose, indeed had confit.

Delicious.  With the rest I turned into stock.  I put all the bones, and covered it with water.....Lo' and behold this beloved goose had created 

Not 1.

But 5 containers of stock.  

Thank you goose.  I will eat you for many a day and enjoy every minute of it.  

Jamie Oliver’s Day Ahead Goose

Serves 8

1 Goose, Approx 5.5 KG (12 lbs 2 ounces)

5 Spice Powder

Sea Salt

3 Clementines (I used 1 blood orange)

2 thumb sizes pieces of ginger

4 sprigs of Rosemary (2 tsp dried Rosemary)

Olive Oil

Sage Leaves

1.        Rub a few good pinches of 5 spice and sea salt flakes all over the goose inside and out, leave covered in the fridge for a few hours or overnight.  Gives crisp skin

2.       Preheat oven 350 degrees F.  Halve 2 Clementines put in goose.  Finely grate ginger onto a board and pick the leaves from rosemary.  Drizzle and toss with olive oil then put inside the goose.  Rub in well.  Wrap legs in tin foil to keep from burning.  Prick the fatty lump above the goose’s cavity with a sharp knife to help the fat melt out.

3.       Breast side  up, onto the bars o the middle shelf of the oven and place a wide roasting tray below the bird to catch the fat.  Roast 3 – 4 hours….Skin crisp, meat tender.  Once goose cooked, moved it to board, and cover with foil.  Leave it to rest for 1 hour.  Turn oven off but leave tray of fat.  Shred meat with fork. 

4.       Take out the tray of fat and squeeze the juice of the remaining Clementine into it.  Rub a Clementine half all over the bottom of the tray to loosen the goods.  Carefully strain the fat through a sieve into the dish of meat.  Toos the fat and goose then scatter over a few sage leaves and press them down until covered.  Cover and put in fridge till next day.

5.       Half an hour before serving, put in oven 300 degrees F for 20-25 minutes.  Drain excess fat and serve w/ crispy sage leaves.