PAPPARDELLE WITH LONG-COOKED DUCK SUGO

Steps:

• Prepare the pasta dough and chill it.
• Trim all the excess skin and fat from the duck legs. Heat 2 cups of the stock, and pour it over the dried porcini. Let soak for 1/2 hour or longer. When the mushrooms have softened, drain and squeeze them, reserving all the soaking liquid; chop the porcini into 1/2-inch pieces.
• Using the food processor, mince the onion, celery, garlic, and all the fresh herbs for 20 to 30 seconds, to a moist paste, or pestata.
• Set the big pan over medium-high heat, and film the bottom with 2 tablespoons of the olive oil. Lay all the duck legs in the pan, skin side down; sprinkle on 1/2 teaspoon salt, and sizzle for a couple of minutes, until the skin side is browned. Flip the legs over and continue cooking, adjusting the heat and moving the meat as needed, until nicely browned all over, then remove them to a bowl or platter.
• If you want to continue cooking with the duck fat, leave 4 tablespoons of it in the pan. Otherwise, pour it all out and use 4 tablespoons of olive oil instead. Return the saucepan to the heat, and scrape in all of the paste from the food-processor bowl. Stir it all over the hot pan, scraping up the browned bits, for 2 minutes or so, until it is nearly dry and toasting.
• Return all the duck legs to the pan, and tumble them in the hot pestata. Scatter in the chopped porcini, stir and toss with the legs, and cook for several minutes, until everything is sizzling.
• Pour in the wine, raise the heat, and turn and tumble the duck and seasonings until the wine has almost cooked away. Pour in the porcini-soaking liquid (leave any mushroom sediment in the container), and sprinkle another 1/2 teaspoon salt all over. Heat to a boil, turning the duck legs and stirring to amalgamate all the seasonings in the broth.
• Set the cover ajar-leaving a crack for evaporation-and cook at an actively bubbling simmer, turning the duck frequently. Add stock every 20 minutes or whenever needed, so the liquid level is about two-thirds of the way up the meat. After 1 1/2 hours or so, when the duck is quite tender and loose on the bone, turn off the heat, and let the legs cool completely in the covered pan.
• Remove the duck legs from the saucepan, and pull all the meat off the bones. Discard the bones and cartilage; tear the meat into good-sized shreds. Spoon fat from the sauce, and stir in the meat. If the sauce is dense, loosen it to a flowing consistency with more stock; heat to a bubbling simmer, and cook for another 15 minutes. Add salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste. Let the sauce cool again, or use some or all of it to dress the pappardelle now.
• To dress 1 pound of pappardelle, put half the sauce in a wide skillet (or the same pan you cooked it in, if you are using it right away); use all the sauce if cooking 2 pounds pappardelle. Have the sauce at a simmer when you drop the pasta into the cooking water. If it is concentrated, moisten it with stock or hot pasta water.
• Cook the pappardelle in at least 6 quarts of salted water (8 quarts or more for 2 pounds), at a rolling boil, just until al dente, about 2 or 3 minutes. With a spider, lift the strands from the pot, briefly drain, and lower them into the sauce. Toss the pappardelle over and over to dress them thoroughly-if the sauce is too thick, loosen it with spoonfuls of pasta-cooking water; if the sauce is soupy, cook rapidly, tossing the pasta, until it thickens.
• Turn off the heat, and toss the pasta with half of the grated cheese; drizzle over it a final flourish of olive oil. Serve from the skillet, or pile the pappardelle in a large warm serving bowl. Pass more cheese at the table.
• Fresh Pasta for Pappardelle (and Tortelli Maremmani)
• Put the flour in the bowl of the food processor and process for a few seconds to aerate. Mix the egg, egg yolks, and olive oil in a measuring cup or other spouted container.
• With the machine running, pour the liquids quickly through the feed tube on top of the flour. After 20 seconds, most of the dough should clump up on the blade. Process for another 15 seconds or so-no more than 40 seconds total. (If the dough does not gather on the blade and process easily, it is too wet or too dry. Feel the dough, then work in either more flour or some ice water, in small amounts, using the machine or kneading by hand.)
• Turn the dough out on a lightly floured surface and knead it by hand for a minute, until it's smooth, soft, and stretchy. Press it into a disk, wrap well in plastic wrap, and let it rest at room temperature for 1/2 hour.
• To roll out the dough in a pasta machine, cut the pound of dough into four equal pieces. Work with one at a time, keeping the others covered. Run the first piece of dough through the rollers at the widest setting several times, to develop strength and smoothness. Repeat with all the pieces. Reset the machine to a narrower setting, and run the first piece through, extending it into a rectangular strip. Let the rollers move the dough, and catch it in your hand as it comes out. Roll it again, to stretch and widen it. Lightly flour and cover the strip, then stretch the other pieces.
• Roll and stretch all the pieces at progressively narrower settings, until they spread as wide as the rollers (usually about 5 inches) and stretch to 20 inches or longer. Cut the four long pasta strips in half crosswise, giving you eight sheets, each about a foot long and 5 inches wide. Lay these flat on the trays in layers, lightly floured, separated, and covered by towels.
• Lay out a rolled sheet on the floured board; dust the top with flour. Starting at one of the short ends, fold the sheet over on itself in thirds or quarters, creating a small rectangle with three or four layers of pasta.
• With a sharp knife, cut cleanly through the folded dough crosswise, in 2-inch-wide strips. Separate and unfold the strips, shaking them into long noodles. Sprinkle them liberally with flour so they don't stick together. Fold, cut, and unfurl all the rolled pasta sheets this way, and spread them out on a floured tray. Leave them uncovered, to air-dry at room temperature, until ready to cook.