Goose roasted with pork, apple and thyme stuffing
Arrosto d'oca con ripieno di salsiccia mela e timo
Paul Pettengale
SERVES 4
Preparation 20 minutes
Cooking 2 hours 30 minutes
1 goose, approximately 8kg
1 medium onion, finely chopped
3 cooking apples, peeled, cored and grated
500g good-quality sausage meat
handful of fresh thyme, leaves picked and chopped
2 slices of white bread, blitzed to breadcrumbs
1 small egg
a little olive oil, plus more for rubbing
a couple of grinds of salt and freshly ground black pepper
To make the stuffing
Heat a little olive oil in a frying pan and sweat the onion for around 5 minutes until translucent. Transfer to a large bowl and, once cooled, add the other stuffing ingredients (everything but the goose), mix it all together until well incorporated - use your hands and squeeze the mixture through your fingers. This amount will be around double what you need to stuff the goose - use the rest to make forcemeat balls; make small balls of the stuffing mixture (about 3cm in diameter) and roast them on a roasting tray in a hot oven for 20 minutes. Serve them with the goose.
Remove the bag of giblets and set aside (you can use these in gravy and stock). Wash the bird thoroughly inside and out, then pat dry and cut away any excess fat and skin.
Place the goose breast-side-up on a trivet or wire cooling rack that's set inside a large roasting tray - this way the bird won't be sitting in its own rendered fat when it cooks. Then half-stuff the cavity with your stuffing.
Use cocktail sticks to seal up the cavity at the neck end, carefully pushing them through the skin. Alternatively, use a butcher's needle and thread to sew up the neck hole.
Tie the legs together with kitchen string, then tie the wings to the side of the bird as shown. Rub all over with a little olive oil and season with lots of salt and pepper.
Tuck a double layer of tin foil all around the goose. Then roast in a preheated oven (180ºC, Gas Mark 4) for 2 hours. Remove the foil and roast for a further 30 minutes until golden brown. Rest for 30 minutes and carve.
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