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• Guinea fowl with chestnut stuffing (faraona ripiena di castagne)

A wonderful roast for a holiday spread, inspired by one of the many ways this is prepared in northern Italy. This is usually done with guinea fowl, a lean bird, similar in size to a chicken, similar in taste to pheasant. As it is so lean, it needs a little help to stay moist during cooking, so wrapping it in pancetta has a double purpose – amazing flavour, succulent meat. Sweet flavours go beautifully with guinea fowl, hence this stuffing with chestnuts. <br /> <br />This dish requires deboning the guinea fowl, a wonderful thing to learn if you've never tried it (watch Jacques Pepin's method on youtube). You could perhaps also get your very friendly butcher to do this for you. <br /> <br />Some notes on the ingredients required. <br /> <br />If you can't get hold of guinea fowl (this autumn/winter bird is very seasonal, but sometimes you can find it frozen), you could try this stuffing with any poultry, be it chicken, poussin, quails or even duck. If using poussin, two will serve 4 people with the same measurements given below. I've done it also with duck breasts, pounded out a little, stuffed and tied, as individual mini roasts. <br /> <br />Use plain Italian style pork sausages – do not use hot, spicy or flavoured sausages please. Pancetta can be round or in strips but should be sliced paper thin. Do not use bacon, as it will be too thick and do not substitute with prosciutto – though tasty, it won't be fatty enough. <br /> <br />You can use fresh chestnuts, boiled and peeled yourself, or you can buy cooked and peeled tinned chestnuts too.

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