Bella Italia Penne Ricce Marco Polo Recipe

Ever since my family first discovered the Penne Ricce Marco Polo dish on the Bella Italia menu last summer we have always plummed for this when ordering! We don't even need to look at the menu before all we all harmoniously announce in unison - Penne Ricce Marco Polo for me please! In good ol' English it is basically duck pasta with mushroom and spring onions in a plum sauce. It is truly amazing! As we all loved it so much I decided to try and make my own version of the recipe so that we could cook it at home whenever we pleased. It was costing us too much money to go to Bella Italia every time we craved this amazing dish.

I think it's a really simple recipe. The quantity of each ingredient in the recipe is an approximation and depends on how much mushroom/onion suits your own personal taste, the ratio of sauce to pasta you like or how much of a meat lover you are. It requires a bit of trial and error and I change the quantities of each ingredient every time I make it! I truly believe the most exciting part of cooking is the experimentation. So here is my attempt with the quantities of the ingredients which I think work best together -

Recipe 
(Serves 4 people)

Ingredients 
Approximately 500g of duck strips - alternatively you can use duck breasts or a duck crown and cut them into pieces
A jar of Sharwoods plum sauce
A punnet of mushrooms - preferably button
5 or 6 spring onions
Some kind of pasta (fusilli)

Preparation

1. If not already done, cut the duck into strips or bite sized pieces/chunks and place in a large wok or stir fry pan
2. Cut the spring onions into small rings and the button mushrooms into thin slices and leave on the chopping board/in a bowl for cooking later
3. Measure out enough pasta for 4 people - I normally do a handful of dry pasta for each person plus an extra handful for good luck
4. Boil the kettle full of water and pour into a large pan, around 1/2 to 3/4 of the way full

Cooking

1. Wait until the water is boiling and then add the pasta and cook for the required time. For most pasta this is around 10 minutes but check the packet for instructions. You can use fresh pasta if you'd prefer so again follow the instructions for this.
2. Turn the wok or stir fry pan with the duck pieces in on to a medium heat and stir fry these until they are cooked through. I don't tend to add oil to the duck as it is quite a fatty meat so creates its own juices to cook in and as long as it isn't on too high a heat should cook nicely without sticking to the pan. This can take anywhere between 5 and 10 minutes but the duck will change colour when it is cooked.
3. Whilst the duck is cooking if I notice that the duck has given out a lot of juices then I tend to drain these off into a cup as otherwise it can make the sauce too thin once it is added later. 
4. Once the duck is cooked, add the mushrooms and spring onions into the pan and cook for a further 2 to 3 minutes.
5. Add the whole jar of plum sauce to the wok and simmer until it is bubbling and fully heated through. 
6. Drain the pasta once it has finished cooking
7. Remove the wok from the heat and add the pasta to the pan stirring it in and making sure that all of the pasta is evenly covered in sauce. 

Et voila, you have your very own version of Bella Italia's Penne Ricce Marco Polo for a fraction of the cost.  It works out at under £15 for this recipe serving 4 people. A large proportion of this is down to the cost of duck as it is an expensive meat so for an even cheaper alternative chicken could be used instead. It works out at around 650 calories per person so we have it as a healthier alternative to a Chinese takeaway some Saturday evenings.