Pigeon baked in oak ash with cooked must sauce
Fabio Baldassarre
For 4 people
4 pigeons
4 medium-sized potatoes
150 g of opposite leaved saltwort
200 ml of cooked must
50 g of pork lard
parsley
extra virgin olive oil
salt
Clean the pigeons, eliminating the feathers and all the innards; burn off any remaining fluff using a flame.
Boil the peeled potatoes in salted water and mash them using a fork, adding salt, oil and chopped parsley.
Gently fry the pigeons in a non-stick frying pan with a drizzle of oil and rub them with the lard. Place oak ash in a soapstone casserole dish, arrange the salted pigeons over it and bake in the oven at 260° C for about 30 minutes.
Blanch the saltwort and gently fry with a drizzle of oil and a pinch of salt.
Carve and scallop the pigeon and serve with the mashed potato, saltwort cooked must.
