Thanksgiving Ragout aka Leftovers from Scratch

Farfalle with Turkey & Pumpkin Ragout

Sometimes leftovers go right over your head. You figure you'll reheat it, or not, or just put it in a sandwich. What if you made leftovers from scratch? I guess that's pretty much what I did here. I went shopping the weekend after Thanksgiving to find most of said holiday items were appropriately reduced in price. Taking advantage of that, I brought home some belated festive ingredients. I've been obsessed with notion of authentic Italian cuisine, or at least delicious Italian food. Being as though it's nearly impossible to obtain in Florida, let alone North America. If you do find it, you tend to pay a pretty penny. So, I thought if I can't make it authentic, let me at least make it delicious. Here's what I did:

-Browned three turkey legs (gotta love dark meat) on all sides till golden (not cooked) in olive oil.

-Meanwhile, I caramelized a whole spanish onion, sliced in a separate pan and preheated the oven to 350F.

-I also boiled a saucepan with water and sugar and added about two handfuls of fresh cranberries until they popped, then I let them cool in the pan with the liquid.

-Set the browned turkey legs aside, added a mirepoix (carrot, onion, celery) plus diced Calabaza squash to the same oil the legs were browned in.

-Let it saute and then deglazed with red wine.

-I threw the caramelized onions in the mix and deglazed that pan as well. Added the deglazing juice to the mix.

-Reduced everything over medium high heat until dry.

-Added back the browned turkey legs, threw in two cans of peeled San Marzano tomatoes and enough stock to come up 3/4 way up the sides.

-Brought that to a simmer and put it in the 350F oven and covered (here I used aluminum foil to cover)

-Left it to cook for roughly 1 hour.

-Took out the turkey legs and shredded the meat.

-Meanwhile, I threw the sauce in the blender to mash it up. Not too fine, leave a bit chunky.

-Added the shredded turkey meat and sauce back to the pan.

-Added fish sauce, salt, fresh oregano, black pepper, chipotle puree, ketchup and the cranberries strained from its liquid.

-Adjusted seasoning.

-Served with farfalle (bowtie) pasta, parmesan cheese, chili flakes, olive oil and chopped celery leaves.