Ducketta

Mark Bittman has a nice article on adapting the classic Italian porchetta — a big hunk of pork, stuffed with rosemary, garlic, and fennel and slowly roasted — to duck breast. As it happened, I had a duck breast waiting to go: Monday Night Duck has become a running household joke.

So, I cut a slit in the side of the breast, carefully expanded it with a paring knife so it became a pocket, and stuffed it with fennel top, 3 big cloves of garlic, and lots of chopped rosemary. I scored the skin, salted and peppered, and then I sautéed it very slowly, skin side down, to render as much fat as I could without burning. Very tasty; you could do this with chicken, too.

3 cloves of garlic was too much. Bittman uses a lot of Parmesan; I left it out but you should put it in. He used fennel seed, I used tops, and I think next time I'd use both.