Stockdove alla ghiotta or “alla Todina”

The dish to which tuderti cannot renounce is the “palomba alla ghiotta” stockdove alla ghiotta.

You can find this dish and enjoy it in many of our restaurants on October 13th, the feast of the patron saint of Todi San Fortunato.

Ingredients for the stockdove alla ghiotta:

• 2 stockdoves
• 1lt red wine
• black olives
• 2 cloves garlic
• sage
• salt and pepper
• ½ lemon
• Extra virgin olive oil
• rosemary

Supplementary ingredients:

• capers
• 80 gramms of prosciutto
• 1 anchovy
• juniper berries

Proceeding:

Pluck the wild pigeon, wash and dry it, cut off the head, neck, wings and feets and put them in a horizontal rotisserie with sage, rosemary, pepper, garlic, lemon zest, extra virgin olive oil and red wine. If you wish you can add capers, olives, juniper berries, an anchovy, stale bread, prosciutto, chicken liver and salt.

Cook it over high heat for 2-3 hours, until the “ghiotta” mixture shrinks by 1/3. Use the mill to grind the mixture twice before putting it in the leccarda, the typical dripping pan once made of tin-plated copper.
Put it under the spit while you roast the pigeon, and baste it with the sauce from the dripping pan.

The wild pigeon meat should be well cooked on the outside and rare in the inside. Add the stockdove, seasoned with salt and pepper, and its innards to the dripping pan, cook it for some minutes to let the flavors blend one another.

Before serving the stockdove alla ghiotta, don’t forget to spread the sauce on the lightly toasted bread and arrange the slices around the stockdove.

Bon Appétit!