Faraona arrosto ripiena con castagne (Roasted boned guinea fowl with chestnuts)

A typical autumn and winter dish that one will find, in some guise or another, in many areas of Northern and Central Italy. I find guinea fowl (as well as pheasant) to have a more interesting taste than chicken and these days you can find free range birds even in some supermarkets. Pairing guinea fowl with chestnut is traditional, as is the sausage and minced beef stuffing. I used rosemary but sage would be a good choice too. The stuffing is kept moist by a typical Italian touch: some stale breadcrumbs soaked in milk. The bird is wrapped in pancetta to keep it moist and for extra flavour. The potatoes become almost gooey and imbued with delicious meat juices. We had this with a winter salad but steamed buttered cabbage would be a very good accompaniment too.
This is a great meat dish for winter.

Faraona arrosto ripiena con castagne e patate
Roasted boned guinea fowl with chestnut and potatoes
For 4-5

1 guinea fowl, about 1.2kg; boned: ask your butcher to do it; salt it lightly
300 g plain,  coarse-cut Italian pork sausages
200 g minced beef
200 g cooked chestnuts (I use the vacuum-packed ones)
150 g Italian unsmoked pancetta, finely sliced
2 tbsp dry Marsala (Cognac, Port, even gin are fine too)
1 tbsp chopped fresh rosemary
1 clove of garlic garlic, pured 
200 g stale bread, cut up in cubes
fenough full fat milk ,  to cover the bread
half a teaspoon of grated lemon zest
black pepper and nutmeg to taste
120 ml dry white wine
1 kg roasting potatoes, cut into chunks

A roasting tin or an oven casserole where the guinea fowl and the potatoes can fit snugly.

Remove the bird and the stuffing ingredients at least one hour before you intend to cook them. Meanwhile, soak the breadcrumbs in the milk. When you are ready to proceed, squeeze the bread thoroughly.
Pre-heat the oven to 180°C/350°F.

Prepare the stuffing by mixing the sausage meat, minced beef, squeezed bread cubes. marsala, rosemary, garlic and lemon peel.
Add salt, pepper and nutmeg to taste. Easy on the salt, you can always add more later. If you want to be absolutely sure about the seasoning, fry a walnut size sample of the stuffing, taste it and correct if necessary. Add the chestnuts, halved: you want to be able to taste them in the end (i.e. do not break them up too much). Mix thoroughly.
Shape the stuffing into a sort of meat loaf.
Place the guinea fowl on your counter, skin side down, put the stuffing in the middle and roll up the bird: the aim is to create a neat parcel. Press and prod the bird to give it a regular shape.
Lay it aside.

You now have to wrap the bird in the pancetta, in order to keep it moist while it cooks.
Arrange the pancetta slices on your work surface, slightly overlapping;  to form a rectangle, large enough to encase the bird. Place the guinea fowl in the middle of the pancetta rectangle and lift the slices up around it, pressing lightly so it adheres to the skin.  Cover any exposed areas on top with additional pancetta, pressing it down to seal it to the slices underneath. Shape the bird neatly, then place a sprig of rosemary on top and secure the entire bird-and-stuffing parcel with butcher’s string.
Place a sprig of rosemary on top and secure the whole bird-stuffing-pancetta parcel with butcher’s string.

Peel the potatoes and cut them into large chunks. Place them in a buttered tin or casserole, salt them and drizzle with some olive oil. Place the guinea fowl on top, pour the wine around and roast in the oven until the internal temperature is  65°C , basting a couple of times  once – it will take roughly one hour (but it depends on the size of the bird). 

Remove from the oven and let it rest for about half and hour minutes, loosely covered. Cut in thick slices, taking care to remove the string first. Obviously, it will slice much better if prepared in advance and refrigerated overnight.

Notes

Boning a guinea fowl/chicken is not very difficult if one does it a few times,  but the first time it will likely be frustrating and messy (and you do need a very sharp knife). I prefer to get my butcher to do it. Still, if you want to learn this technique, check this Jaques Pipin video.
What to do with the carcass?… make a stock obviously!

Salt the guinea fowl as soon as you come home from the butcher – this early, dry curing makes for a tastier bird because the salt has enough time to penetrate the meat. Salt thoroughly but remember that the bird will be wrapped in pancetta, which can be salty. I tend to salt all my meat a few days in advance and leave it uncovered at the bottom of the refrigerator.

I have also successfully used dry chestnut, rehydrated for about ten hours and then cooked in the pressure cooker, barely covered with water (check after the first ten minutes).

The Italian pancetta you use can be either the flat, squat type (now sold already sliced in some supermarkets) or, my preference, pancetta arrotolata, the round one, generally sold by Italian delis. It must be unsmoked, it must be paper thin.

The stuffing will be better if you can make it a few days in advance. This is common practice for paté, terrine, meatloaf and meatballs.

Use chopped parsley instead of rosemary; add some sultanas or dry, soft, chopped prunes to the stuffing; use a mix of spices (cinnamon, cardamom, black pepper, nutmeg, ginger) instead of black pepper and nutmeg.

To reheat the guinefowl: first warm up any juice left. If it is not enough, just add a little water, a knob of butter and a little meat extract or crumbled stock cube. When the liquid is boiling, add the meat and reheat very gently, covered.

A simpler approach: If you do not want to go through all the boning & stuffing, just place the stuffing inside the  bird (you will need much less though), cover it with pancetta, then roast. It will take longer to cook, this way,