Preparation time
less than 30 mins
Cooking time
over 2 hours
Serves
Serves 4

From Saturday Kitchen
Ingredients
For the pigeon
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 pigeons, jointed
- 1 onion, diced
- 2 carrots, peeled and diced
- 3 celery sticks, diced
- 100g/3½oz pancetta, diced
- 1 sprig rosemary
- 4 garlic cloves
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 tbsp black olives, stones in
- 500ml/18fl oz red wine, preferably Chianti
- 300ml/10fl oz chicken stock
- 30g/1oz butter
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the spinach
- 100g/3½oz spinach
- 30g/1oz butter
For the polenta
- 250g/9oz coarse polenta
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp salt
To serve
- 400g/14oz sour cream
Method
Heat a sauté pan over a medium-high heat and add the olive oil. Season the pigeon pieces well and fry until nicely coloured on all sides. Remove from the pan and add the onion, carrots and celery, frying until browned. Add the pancetta, rosemary, garlic, bay leaves and olives. Pour over the red wine and reduce by half, then add the stock and reduce by half again. Add the pigeon back to the pan and simmer, uncovered, for around 2 hours until the meat is tender.
To make the polenta, bring 1 litre/1¾ pints of water to the boil in a saucepan, then whisk in the polenta and cook gently for 30–40 minutes. When the polenta is nice and soft, stir in the olive oil and salt.
Remove the pigeon pieces from the braising liquid and reduce it to a sauce consistency. Pick the pigeon meat from the bones and return to the pan. Stir in some butter just before serving.
For the spinach, heat the butter in a saucepan and once foaming, add the spinach. Sauté for 2–3 minutes until the spinach has wilter. Season with salt and pepper.
Spoon the polenta onto four plates and top with braised pigoen. Serve with the spinach and a spoon of sour cream alongside.