Roast Small Birds

Ingredients

• small birds (thrushes, larks, or smaller)
• sage leaves
• crostini (day-old bread slices about 1.5 cm thick)
• lardone (cured pork fat)
• olive oil
• salt
• lemon

Instructions

1. Use fresh, plump small birds (thrushes, larks); do not gut them. Fold each wing back over a sage leaf or two; cross and pierce the trimmed feet, tucking a little sage into the crossing.
2. Thread on the spit with larger birds in the middle, separated by crostini (day-old bread ~1.5 cm thick); wrap each breast in paper-thin salted cured-pork-fat slices.
3. Roast over flame; if beaks aren't set into the breastbone, hang them by the head first to 'make the neck.'
4. Baste once with oil (brush/feather, avoiding the crostini) as they brown, and salt once. Start them late so they don't overcook and dry out.
5. Slip them off the spit evenly to keep them lined up on the platter. For gamey duck/mallard, some baste with squeezed lemon plus the pan oil.