Carbonara is great, especially when made traditionally. However, we might sometimes be in the mood for a more delicate version, which does not rely so heavily on pork fat (but make no mistake: I heavily use duck fat instead). Or maybe some of use do not eat pork at all, for dietary or cultural/religious reasons. So here comes my Sichuan Duck Carbonara, this more delicate, but still fancy and rich version of the carbonara. I wanted to incorporate a wonderful meat like duck breast in a traditional Italian dish. But we also borrow from China, where duck and Sichuan pepper often go very well together.
This recipe takes about 35 minutes to make, prepping included. It might take a bit longer if you have never seen a duck breast before, but it would take even less if have. You will learn how to make a traditional carbonara (it is extremely similar, replacing pancetta for the duck) and how to cook a duck breast (this is the only challenge of the recipe).
This recipe can easily be made as a dish in a dinner with 2 to 6 people (I would not go farther as it can become tricky to mix large amounts of pasta, but you might be able to depending on your equipment). You can cook the duck in advance, doing the searing a few hours before and then finishing in the oven at the very end.
Below, some important points and some pictures that might help, but feel free to skip to the compact printable recipe at the end.
Cooking the duck – We love those crispy bits
The challenge of cooking duck is to get the skin rendered first (so it thins) and then very crispy, without overcooking the duck. To do this, we start with a heavy pan (cast iron or carbon steel is ideal), cold, so that fat has a chance of rendering before searing. We cook the duck 90% on the skin, almost like you would do with delicate fish like sea bass. We want to find a sweet heat spot. If too hot, we will have a fat cap on the duck. If too low, we will overcook the part of the meat close to the fat. We finally finish it in the oven to bring it to the desired temperature (55C or medium-rare if you are happy to take a little risk; 77C or medium-well to make sure any potentially harmful bacteria is dead).
With duck, you never want to leave the pan. Stay there. Stay vigilant. It takes a good use of your sense to cook duck perfectly.
Finally: ALWAYS. REST. YOUR. MEAT. We work so hard to get the meat juicy, but we would lose the juices if we sliced into it when just out of the oven. Give time to the meat to relax and the juices to re-distribute within it.
As duck will be chewy (except for the skin), we reserve some of the skin we trimmed, get it very crispy on the pan, and sprinkle it on the dish. This will provide some textural contrast.
The secret to a creamy carbonara
For the carbonara, we go traditional and mix the cooked pasta in the bowl with the eggs, off the heat. Again, if you are pregnant you might want to make sure of the temperature reached by the eggs, or maybe mix them in the pot of the pasta (which is hotter and will cook them more thoroughly). One more alternative is doing a baine marie: set your bowl (if using a metal bowl) on top of the pasta pot, with boiling water in it, and mix the pasta in it while the bowl is gently heated by the steam. This method will give you maximum control over the cooking of the eggs.
Mixing the pasta in the eggs’ bowl will do two things: 1) prevent the eggs from coagulate, mixing them gently and getting them creamy; 2) release the starch of the pasta into the eggs, to get them extra creamy. Follow this simple tips and your sichuan duck carbonara (as well as any carbonara you make) will be just like at the restaurant!
Make it Gluten-Free!
Duck Carbonara can be made gluten-free by swapping pasta with gluten-free pasta. A brand of gluten-free pasta I love is Rummo, if you can get hold of it. Their pasta has a long cooking time and it is difficult to overcook. If you cannot find it, Barilla gluten-free pasta should be available pretty much everywhere.
Have some leftover duck? Try also my duck miso ramen.
Sichuan Duck Carbonara
Ingredients
- 1 duck breast (generally around 200-250g each, you will have leftover)
- 160gr linguine or spaghetti (if gluten-free, go for Rummo or Barilla)
- 1 egg
- 3 egg yolks
- Sichuan pepper, to taste (1 tbsp whole or 1tsp ground should be enough)
- Black pepper, freshly ground, to taste (a pinch goes a long way when freshly ground)
- 50g grated Parmesan + some to serve
- Salt
Directions
- Step 1 Let’s start with the duck breast. Toast the Sichuan pepper on a non-stick pan for 1-2 minutes at medium-low, shaking the pan often, until it is bloomed (it will smell wonderful). Do not burn it. If it is whole, grind it with mortar and pestle or with a spice/coffee grinder after it is toasted.
- Step 2 Prepare the duck breast as follows. Put it on your cutting board skin-side up. With a sharp knife, do some shallow incisions on the skin with a criss-cross pattern (try to avoid exposing the skin). Flip the duck. Trim any excess skin flapping around outside the perimeter of the breast and reserve it (this extra skin/fat will be flavour bombs to employ later).
- Step 3 Season generously the duck breast (on both sides, but more on the meat side) with a mix of salt and Sichuan pepper. Let it absorb the salt for at least 10 minutes before cooking and leave the breast to bloom and slightly come to temperature. Pre-heat the oven to 200C (180C fan).
- Step 4 4. Start with a cold heavy pan (cast iron or carbon steel). Place the duck breast skin-side down on the pan and turn it on to medium-high heat. Also add the pieces of skin you trimmed. We will be cooking the duck breast mostly on the skin side.
- Step 5 After 1 to 2 minutes the skin will start rendering. If you feel the pan is too hot and the fat too thick, turn it down to medium.
- Step 6 Wait 5 to 6 minutes more, the skin should become crispy and there should be a pool of fat in the pan. Take a peek of the skin every once and then. It takes good use of your senses to perfectly cook such a beautiful and delicate piece of meat.
- Step 7 Once you are satisfied with the skin and the pan is quite hot, flip the duck breast and quickly sear it on the meat side. This will take maximum 1 minute, raise the heat to high if you need to! We want to sear it, not cook it.
- Step 8 Once that is done, flip the duck back on the skin side and move the pan to the oven. Depending on the thickness of the duck breast, 5 to 8 minutes of oven should bring it to a good medium-rare, but I encourage you to check that the internal temperature is of 55C (to have it food safe for sure you need to bring it to 71C to 77C, but if you are happy to take a little risk to have your breast medium-rare, aim at 55C). If your pan is not oven-proof, you can put it on a baking tray.
- Step 9 Pull the duck out of the oven. Reserve the rendered fat that is in the pan. Set the duck and the little pieces of crispy skin you trimmed on a plate to rest for at least 8 minutes.
- Step 10 While the meat is resting, cook the pasta. Get water to a boil in a large pot. Salt the water heavily. Drop the pasta in the pot and mix well. We will be cooking pasta al dente, for about 1 minute less than the package instructions.
- Step 11 While the pasta cooks, add the egg plus yolks and a pinch of Sichuan pepper, to a very large bowl. Pasta will be tossed into the bowl later, so make sure it is large enough. Mix well. Now add the parmesan and mix again.
- Step 12 When the pasta is almost done (say 3-4minutes from being ready), slice the duck breast thinly with a sharp knife. Keep a few beautiful slices aside. With the rest of the slices, cut them again vertically to get small batonnes/”sticks” of duck breast. We cut them vertically to make sure every single piece has both meat and crispy skin.
- Step 13 Now on to the extra pieces of skin that was trimmed. These should be very crispy. If they are, dice them finely and set them aside. Add all the reserved fat to the eggs, provided it is now cold (if hot, it might cook the eggs). Mix well and vigorously to incorporate the fat into the eggs.
- Step 14 When the pasta is ready, reserve some of the pasta water (a cup will be more than enough, you might not even need it). Drain the pasta and toss it in the bowl where the egg mixture is.
- Step 15 Toss, toss, toss, mix, mix, mix, non-stop for a few seconds (say 20/30 sec). If you feel the sauce is too thick, add some pasta water (in tablespoon increments) and mix again. Now add the duck we sliced in sticks to the pasta and mix quickly again (hopefully it won’t cook too much and turn grey).
- Step 16 Plate the pasta, making sure to spoon some egg mixture on it. Sprinkle some of the extra crispy fat on top. Add a few slices of duck on top. Season with a sprinkle of Sichuan pepper and black pepper, as well as a little grated parmesan.
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