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Stuffed capon with potatoes and artichokes

We suggested a side dish with Christmas in mind, choosing potatoes and artichokes as typical winter vegetables, but you can serve the capon with other vegetables if you prefer.

Chef Danilo Angè

Difficulty: easy

Method: 30

Cooking: 80

Difficulty: easy

Method: 30

Cooking: 80

Chef Danilo Angè

Difficulty: easy

Method: 30

Cooking: 80

Difficulty: easy

Method: 30

Cooking: 80

Basic preparations

Vegetable stock

Method

  1. 01 / Prepare the vegetables for the capon filling

    Wash courgettes and cut into small cubes

    Peel carrots and cut into small cubes

    Heat a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil in a pan

    Cook carrots over medium heat for two minutes

    Season with salt and pepper and let drain on a baking sheet with absorbent paper

    Use the same pan to cook the courgettes

    Cook courgettes over medium heat for one minute

    Season with salt and pepper and let drain on absorbent paper together with carrots

    Cooking vegetables separately allows them to retain their texture

  2. 02 / Prepare the filling

    Chop prosciutto and put in a large bowl

    Add ground meats

    Add vegetables, drained of all oil

    Add Parmigiano and egg

    Stir until the mixture is homogeneous

    Taste and season with salt and pepper

    Stir again

  3. 03 / Stuff the capon

    Spread deboned capon on a worktop

    Evenly stuff capon with filling

    Tie the bird with food twine

  4. 04 / Cook the capon

    Put a baking tray, which will ultimately go in the oven, on the hob

    Add extra virgin olive oil

    Put capon on the tray and brown over high heat

    If you have the capon bones, add them to the tray

    Cover with wine and add aromatic herbs

    Let wine evaporate

    Put baking tray in the oven at 170 °C for 1 hour 20 minutes

    Watch while it cooks and, if the capon begins to dry out, add vegetable stock a little at a time

    Turn off the oven and let capon rest for 10 minutes before cutting

  5. 05 / Prepare the artichokes

    Prepare a bowl with cold water and lemon juice

    Snip off tips of leaves with thorns

    Remove hard outer leaves until reaching the most tender part

    Clean artichoke stems and bottoms with a small knife, removing the harder green part

    Cut artichokes in half

    Remove the fuzzy choke with a corer or small knife

    Dip artichokes in water and lemon

    Drain artichokes after two minutes and dry on absorbent paper

    Cut in half again

    Heat 20 g extra virgin olive oil in a pan over medium heat

    Add artichokes, a crushed clove of garlic, salt, and pepper

    Cook for about ten minutes, until soft

  6. 06 / Prepare the potatoes

    Wash and peel potatoes

    Cut into large wedges

    Submerge in a pot of boiling water for one minute

    Drain and dry on absorbent paper

    Put potatoes on a baking tray and cover with about 20 g of extra virgin olive oil

    Add rosemary needles

    Bake at 190 °C for about thirty minutes

    Salt potatoes after turning off the oven

    They should be golden on the outside and soft on the inside

  7. 07 / To serve

    Cut capon into slices

    Place on serving dish

    If there is any cooking sauce left in the pan, pour it over the slices of meat

    Place potatoes and artichokes on serving dish

Wine pairing

We suggest pairing stuffed capon with a soft and fruity red wine of medium alcohol content, such as Merlot or Bonarda dell’Oltrepò.

Basic preparations

Vegetable stock

Stuffed capon can be prepared a day in advance and stored in the refrigerator before cooking. On the day you serve it, you will only have to cook it. The convenience of preparing stuffed capon in advance contributed significantly to its status as a beloved holiday dish.

Do not skip the initial stage of browning the capon in the pan—it creates a nice external crust and gently cooks the meat inside, preserving its succulence.

Do not forget to use pork to give the filling the right fattiness.

Do not salt the filling immediately but at the end, after adding all the ingredients and tasting it.

As with any recipe containing different ingredients, the capon filling owes its goodness to the balance between the ingredients themselves; do not overdo it with any one flavour, they must all be in harmony.

Do not forget to check the capon from time to time while it cooks in the oven; add stock a little at a time if it dries out.

If you have any leftovers from the capon, they will keep in the refrigerator for a couple of days. You can also freeze your leftovers, provided that you have only used fresh (rather than defrosted) ingredients in the recipe.

A capon is a cockerel that has been castrated at a young age so that it gains more weight than a normal chicken would, giving its meat a particular softness and flavour.

For these pleasant characteristics, it is one of the undisputed favourites on many Italian families’ Christmas menus.

A rather large chicken could be used as a satisfactory substitute, but it would not have the succulence and softness of capon meat.

You can replace the prosciutto crudo with other cured meat to your taste, like sausage, pancetta, or salami paste, paying attention to how these ingredients impact the flavour of the filling.

Even the aromatic herbs are up to you! Here, we have recommended the classic herbs in Italian tradition.

We suggested a side dish with Christmas in mind, choosing potatoes and artichokes as typical winter vegetables, but you can serve the capon with other vegetables if you prefer.

Ingredients for 4 people

For the capon

1 boned capon

300 g ground veal

200 g ground pork

70 g prosciutto crudo

150 g courgettes

150 g carrots

70 g Parmigiano, grated

1 egg

300 ml dry white wine

1 bunch sage and rosemary

20 g extra virgin olive oil

100 ml vegetable stock (optional)

Salt and pepper

For the sides

1 kg potatoes

6 artichokes

40 g extra virgin olive oil

1 sprig rosemary

Salt and pepper

Wine pairing

We suggest pairing stuffed capon with a soft and fruity red wine of medium alcohol content, such as Merlot or Bonarda dell’Oltrepò.

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