Stewed Coots

Ingredients

• 4 coots
• coot gizzards
• 1 large onion
• celery, carrot, parsley
• 80 g butter
• spices
• tomato sauce or paste
• 3 eggs' worth of pappardelle, or 500 g strips pappardelle or pasta strips
• Parmesan cheese
• salt and pepper

Instructions

1. Pluck, singe, draw and wash four coots; quarter them (discarding head, feet, wing tips), and steep them and the cleaned gizzards in vinegar an hour, then rinse.
2. Make a finely chopped base of onion, celery, carrot and parsley; cook it with 80 g butter along with the coots and gizzards, seasoned with salt, pepper and spices.
3. When dry, moisten with tomato sauce or paste in plenty of water and cook, leaving much sauce; then sieve it.
4. Stir a chopped coot breast-and-a-half and 40 g more butter into the sauce, and dress pappardelle or pasta strips with it and Parmesan.
5. Serve the coots afterward with some of their sauce (all serves five or six).