By modern Italian standards this is rather exotic. However, if you go back a few hundred years, combinations of fruit and spices were quite common. This recipe is drawn from Le Carni, a compendium assembled by the editors of La Cucina Italiana. They note that it will take an hour of preparation and another two to cook. To serve four:

• 2 1/4 pounds (1 k) goose, chopped into pieces
• 2 medium-sized, mildly tart apples
• 3/4 cup dry white wine
• 2 ounces (50 g, or about a half cup) raisins
• A bullion cube
• Flour
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 2 tablespoons gin
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• A large pinch each powdered cinnamon, powdered cloves, and freshly ground nutmeg
• Salt & pepper to taste

Begin by rinsing the raisins, patting them dry, and soaking them in the gin for at least a half hour. In the meantime, peel and core the apples, and dice them, dropping the dice into a food processor. Add the lemon juice and the white wine and blend until the mixture is smooth and creamy.

Preheat your oven to 380 F (190 C).

Heat the oil in an ovenproof pot, flour the goose pieces, and brown them. When they are browned drain away all the fat and return the pot to the stove. Pour the blended apples over the meat, crumble the bullion over it, sprinkle in the raisins and their gin, and season everything with the pinches of spices and salt and pepper to taste. Cook for about 10 minutes, then cover the pot and transfer it to the oven. Roast for 2 hours, covered.

Remove the meat to a platter, and if the sauce is still too liquid thicken it by dissolving 2 teaspoons of cornstarch in 2 tablespoons of cool water, stirring the paste into the sauce, and heating the sauce gently over a burner, stirring, until it reaches the desired thickness.

The wine? Ideally what you cooked the goose with, or perhaps a good, mildly tart Gavi along the lines of Broglia. If you want a red, a Rossese di Dolceacqua.

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