MAKE the most of New Forest venison with this Italian-inspired dish which comes courtesy of the head chef at the Urban Reef Restaurant on Boscombe Promenade. It’s perfect for two people to share on a cold winter’s evening over a nice bottle of red wine.

New Forest Venison in a Roasted Tomato & Vegetable Ragout, with Egg & Spinach tagliatelle & a Red Wine & Mascarpone Fondue

Serves 2

1 kilo of venison shoulder (make sure it’s boned)

250g of plain tagliatelle

250g of spinach tagliatelle

½ bottle of red wine

2 carrots

1 head of celery

2 onions

4 cloves of garlic

6 ripe tomatoes

150g mascarpone cheese

For the venison: Start by preheating your oven to 150C (gas mark4).

Seal the venison in a frying pan. You’ll want to do this for a couple of minutes on each side. Next place the venison in a tray and season your meat with salt and pepper. Crush half of the garlic, chop one of the onions, chop one of the carrots and half of the celery. Add these ingredients to the tray with three-quarters of the wine. Cover the tray with foil and place into the preheated oven for three hours.

For the sauce: Finely chop the remaining onion, carrot and the rest of the celery. Finely slice the garlic and add all of these ingredients to a thick bottomed pan. Gently fry for approx 8-10 minutes. Make sure you do this on a low heat as it will help to release the natural flavours.

Next, prepare the tomatoes. You’ll need to skin and seed them. To skin them, we recommend placing them in some boiling water for 10 seconds, then plunge them straight into ice cold water and the skins will naturally come off. Add them to your pan and leave on a low heat for 40 minutes until the sauce has reduced by a third.

Add some salt and pepper and a teaspoon of sugar to the mixture – this isn’t for flavour, it’s to balance out the acidity of the tomatoes.

To serve: Add the pasta to boiling, salted water until it’s ‘al dente’. Drain off any excess water and add the pasta to the tomato ragout. Mix together well and leave the mixture to one side.

Take the venison out of the oven. Allow it to rest and cool. You will have some juice left over in the tray. Pour into a pan and put on a fast boil. Allow the juice to reduce by two-thirds and put your juice reduction through a fine sieve into the ragout sauce. This will add to the flavour. By now your venison will be tender, so break it up and fold it through the ragout and pasta sauce.

To finish, reduce the remaining wine. (Do this on the hob). You want to reduce it to a couple of tablespoons, it’ll end up like a syrup. Allow to cool slightly and mix into your mascarpone.

Reheat your ragout mixture, plate it up and add a couple of dollops of mascarpone.

• If you have any seasonal dishes to share with us at Taste please contact nicky.findley@bournemouthecho.co.uk