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Mrs. Maccioni's Boneless Stuffed Turkey
EGIDIANA MACCIONI
of
Le Cirque
Serves eight.
3 1/2-inch-thick slices white bread
1/4 cup milk
1 cup chopped parsley
1/4 cup olive oil
1 and a 1/2 pounds veal, cubed
1 and a 1/2 pounds Italian sweet sausage
2 and a 1/4 cups finely chopped onion
4 large cloves garlic, chopped
14 ounces chicken livers
1/4 cup white wine
14 ounces mortadella
1 and a 1/2 pounds cooked, peeled fresh chestnuts (frozen or canned may be substituted)
14 ounces Parmigiano-Reggiano, grated
2 ounces black truffles, cut into 1/4-inch dice (optional)
3 eggs, beaten
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 10-to-12-pound turkey, boned but with wings, thigh, leg bones, and skin intact
4 tablespoons butter, melted
3 tablespoons Madeira wine
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Break up the bread into a bowl. Add the milk, and set aside to soak. Chop the bread and parsley in a mixer until fine.
Heat the oil in a large skillet over high heat, add the veal, and sauté until it begins to brown. Remove from pan, and spread out on a sheet pan to cool. Add the sausage meat, and cook until browned, remove from the pan, and add to veal. Heat a little more oil in the skillet, add the onion and garlic, and cook until translucent; then add the chicken livers and cook until the livers are firm. Remove contents of skillet and set aside. Deglaze the pan with the wine, and reduce until almost dry. Add the reduced sauce to the chicken-liver mixture.
Place the veal and sausage meat in a food processor, and pulse until coarsely chopped; remove to a large bowl. Place the chicken liver-onion mixture in the processor, along with the mortadella and chestnuts, and process until coarsely chopped. Add to the chopped meats along with the cheese and truffles, stir in the eggs until well combined, and season to taste with salt, pepper, and nutmeg.
Using fine butcher's twine and a large trussing needle, sew up the neck openings of the birds. Set aside a little of the stuffing for the squab (recipe below), and stuff the turkey with the remainder. (Any left over can be put in a small baking dish, covered with foil, and cooked along with the turkey.) Sew up the rear of the turkey to enclose the stuffing, and tie the turkey legs together with string. Brush the skin of the bird with melted butter, and season with salt and pepper. (The bones from the turkey can be used to make a stock for the gravy.)
Place the stuffed turkey on a rack in a roasting pan, and roast for about 3 hours, until the internal temperature reaches 170 degrees. Baste with pan juices every 30 minutes. (Cover the skin with foil if it starts to brown too much.) Place the bird on a warm platter, and set aside to rest for about 15 minutes. Pour off juices from the roasting pan, and skim fat from the surface. Deglaze the pan with Madeira, and add 1/2 to 3/4 cup of the pan juices and 1/4 to 1/2 cup of water. Boil until slightly reduced, and season to taste with salt and pepper.
Photograph by Beatriz Da Costa.
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