Name: Pigeons with Black Olives (Piccioni con Olive Nere)
Yield: Serves 4
Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients: 1 tbsp raisins; salt and pepper to taste; 175 g (6 oz) fresh breadcrumbs; 2 egg yolks; 115 g (4 oz) fresh pork sausagemeat, crumbled; 150 ml (5 fl oz) red wine; 1 × 425 g (15 oz) can peeled plum tomatoes, chopped in the can; 20 black olives, pitted; 3 garlic cloves, chopped; 2 tbsp olive oil; 4 pigeons, complete with giblets; the pigeon giblets and liver, chopped; 1 tbsp chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley; 1 small onion, finely chopped

Preparation info

Serves
4

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

An Invitation to Italian Cooking

By Antonio Carluccio

Published 1986

About

‘Tuscany can perhaps be considered the homeland of game. In this region recipes abound for all types of birds, and domestic or wild pigeons are often to be found on the menu. Wood pigeons - which are tastier than bred pigeons - can be ordered from any good butcher or game dealer.’

Ingredients

4 pigeons, complete with giblets
2 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Method

I often stuff birds, game birds in particular, as in my view, stuffing is the simplest, easiest way to make a bird more attractive and flavourful.

Clean and gut the pigeons (taking care not to throw away the giblets). Salt them inside and out, then fry them on all sides in the oil in a large pan for about 15 minutes. Keep the frying oil.

To make the stuffing, fry the onion in th