Recipe: Christmas Capon

Christmas Capon
Source: Italian Holiday Cooking
Servings: 8

1 Capon (about 8 pounds)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

STUFFING
6 ounces ground pork
6 ounces ground veal
1 small canned or fresh black truffle -- minced (optional)
1/2 cup chopped carrots
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
1/2 cup fine dry bread crumbs
1 garlic clove -- minced
1/2 teaspoon chopped thyme
1/8 freshly grated nutmeg
1 large egg beaten
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 cup dry white wine

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

Remove the giblets from the cavity of the capon (reserve for another use, if desired). Rinse capon well and dry it thoroughly inside and out. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

To make the stuffing, mix together all of the ingredients in a large mixing bowl, blending well. Just before you are ready to cook the capon, stuff it with the mixture, filling the cavity only about 2/3 full. Tie the legs together with kitchen twine.

Place the capon on a rack in a roasting pan. Roast for 25 to 30 minutes per pound, or a bout 3 1/2 hours for an 8-pound bird. After an hour, begin basting every 20 minutes with the wine and pan juice. The capon
is done when the temperature in the thickest part of the thigh and in the center of the stuffing registers 165 degrees F. on an instant-read thermometer.

Remove the capon from the oven and cover loosely with foil. Let stand for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, strain the pan juices and skim off the fat.

To serve, reheat the juices. Carve the capon. Arrange the capon and the stuffing on a warm serving platter and drizzle the pan with juices.

NOTES : Moist flavorful capon is the traditional holiday bird in many parts of Italy. Often it is poached and the flavorful broth is used to make soup with tortellini or capelletti as a first course. Here it is roasted stuffed with truffle-flavored meats, a specialty of the Piedmont region.