Impress Your Lover this Weekend with this Quail Sauce over Fettuccine

On Wednesday we talked about the goodness that was Marcella Hazan's recipes, and how with her specific details even a simple spinach and tomato sauce for pasta could taste like a gourmet meal. Well if you try that and want to go along for an even more delicious ride, hold on to your socks! This quail sauce over fettuccine will blow you away, and have whomever you make it for raving about your culinary skills. We'd never worked with quail before and were a little intimidated at first, but turns out, it's actually pretty easy to do!

It takes about an hour from start to finish, so it's perfect for the weekend. Plan your date for 8 and start cooking at 7, so that everything's ready when your lady or gent arrives. Serve with a nice glass of white, and by 8:15 you'll be covered in compliments and they'll be truly impressed. You can thank us in the comments later :)

Making the Dish

What You'll Need
2 quail, rinsed and patted dry (although, at our grocer we could only get it in a pack of 4, so make four if you need to, it'll be fine!)
3 tbsp, olive oil
1 half sweet onion, very finely chopped
1/2 rib celery, very finely chopped
1/2 carrot, very finely chopped
1 sage leaf and 1 sprig's worth of rosemary leaves, very finely chopped together
1 tbsp fresh ground black pepper
1/2 cup white wine (chardonnay works fine, as does pinot grigio or sauvignon blanc - nothing too sweet!)
1 can whole peeled plum tomatoes
1/4 cup freshly grated pecorino romano cheese
1/2 lb fettuccine (or, if you want to be fancy, fresh tagliatelle)

In a large wide saucepan that can contain all the quail in one layer, start heating up the olive oil over medium high heat. Once the oil is nice and hot, add the quail and brown them on all sides - about 2 -3 minutes per side. Once browned, remove hem from the pan.

In the same pan, add in the onion, celery carrot, sage and rosemary, and cook until the vegetables are softened, about 6 - 7 minutes.

Once the veggies have softened, add the quail back to the pan. Add a touch of salt and pepper, and gently stir together. You don't want the quail to rip or tear, but you do want to get them covered up in the veggie infused oils. Turn them a few times as they start to take on a nice golden color.

After about 4 minutes, add your wine and bring it to a gentle boil for about 45 seconds. Add in about a 1/4 cup worth of the tomato juice from the can of tomatoes and let it return to a boil. Then, turn the heat down to low. Move the pan back and forth so that the quail are as submerged into the liquid as possible. Cover the pan, and cook on low heat for about 20 minutes.

While the quail are simmering in the tomato sauce, remove 3 - 5 tomatoes (your preference!) from the can and roughly chop them up. When the quail have cooked for 20 minutes, add the cup up tomato to the pan and fold them into the sauce, again stirring gently so as not to tear the quail.

Add in the tablespoon of ground black pepper, stir to incorporate, and then cover the pan with the lid slightly ajar and cook for another 25 minutes. Check the pan throughout this process and if the cooking juices are drying up, add in a tablespoon of the tomato juice.

By now, the quail should be fall off the bone tender. Remove the quail from the sauce. Start cooking your fettuccine in salted water - cook it until 1 minutes shy of the package directions, then get to work on the quail. Using two forks, pull the meat away from any bones and get it into nice chunks. Be sure that no bones remain in the meat. For presentation's sake, you can keep the drumsticks whole and place them on top of the dish at the end.

With the meat separated and pulled, add it back into the pan of sauce and stir it in. You should have a nice thick, ragu of tomatoes and quail.

Add the fettuccine to the quail sauce mixture and add in the grated pecorino romano. Ladle a small amount of the pasta water over the pecorino to get it melted, and toss the entire concoction over medium heat until all of the juice is absorbed in the pasta - about two minutes.

Serve on warmed plates, the drumstick placed nicely on top, garnished with extra pecorino if you desire!







The Result
This was definitely one of the most impressive meals we've made in our small kitchen. The sauce was rich and silky, with big flavorful chunks of tomato and quail.

The quail has the consistency of chicken, but none of the chicken-y cloyingness - it's richer and bolder, which is a perfect compliment to the wine flavored tomato sauce.

Use a nice wine for the cooking and serve it with the meal for a great pairing. If you've done it all correctly (and if your date isn't a vegetarian!), she or he should be very impressed with you, and it should be pretty much guaranteed she'll be telling her friends about your excellent culinary skills. Feel free to take all the credit!

If you have any questions, or success stories, let us know in the comments! Have a great weekend!

One year ago: Chicken Cacciatore