This will also work with chicken, and will serve 4. In either case ask your butcher to bone the bird.

• 1 large duck or equivalent-sized chicken
• The giblets, cleaned and minced (optional)
• 1/2 pound ham, shredded
• 2 pounds radicchio rosso di Treviso, cut into thin wedges
• The leaves of a sprig of rosemary
• Several leaves sage
• 1-2 cloves garlic, crushed
• Salt & pepper to taste
• 1/2 cup extravirgin olive oil
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• Crostini made from polenta (as a side dish; grill or fry half-inch high slices of polenta)

String

Sauté the radicchio in 1/4 cup olive oil until it is wilted, season it with salt and pepper, then combine it with the ham and the giblets (if you're using them) and stuff the bird with the mixture. Sew the bird shut and heat your oven to 390 degrees F (200 C). While the oven is warming mince the garlic, rosemary and sage and stir them into the remaining olive oil. Roast the bird on a rack for an hour and a half; alternate basting with the herbed oil and the dry white wine. While the duck is cooking prepare the crostini (you can if need be start from commercially prepared polenta), and serve everything hot. The Wine? I'd suggest a Valpolicella Classico Superiore. The recipe is from Rita Zaniol and Florindo Lain, chefs of the Ristorante Toni Forcheton in Ciano del Montello (Treviso).

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