Turkey "Porchetta" & Gravy

One of the best things about travelling is seeing and eating new things that give you an idea to make at home. When I read that many Italians eat turkey at Christmas I knew that this would be the right size to feed our group and mercifully, it could be made ahead of time. Little did I count on a free range turkey shortage (it's a thing apparently!) and a wonderful butcher saved the day and I had my deboned turkey breasts ready to roll and carve. It's one of those things that is so embarrassingly easy that you think that you may have gotten away scot free without any drama! Well apart from the turkey shortage that is...

Turkey "Porchetta" & Gravy

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott/Not Quite Nigella

Preparation time: 20 minutes

Cooking time: 1.5 hours

• 2x attached turkey breasts, deboned, skin on (your butcher can do this for you)
• 200g/7ozs. prosciutto
• 1/4 cup rosemary and sage
• 2 tablespoons salt flakes
• 1 tablespoon fennel seeds

Step 1 - Heat the salt, rosemary and fennel seeds in a saucepan until fragrant. Remove from heat and cool. Grind in a mortar and pestle with the sage leaves. Lay out the turkey breast. Spread this mixture in all of the crevices and then lay prosciutto on top. Roll up and wrap in more prosciutto and then secure with kitchen string. You can do this a day ahead if you need to.

Step 2 - Preheat oven to 180C/350F. Roast the turkey for 45 minutes per kilo. Allow to cool completely before carving so that it carves well.

Step 3 - Reserve the juices in the pan and skim off the fat (I put it in the fridge as I baked it that morning to allow it to cool). Combine with a cup of chicken stock in a small saucepan. Heat to a simmer. While it is heating, mix 3 tablespoons cornflour with 5 tablespoons of cold water to make a slurry. Turn the heat of the stock down to low and add the cornflour mixture and stir constantly while it thickens. If you want it thicker you can make a bit more cornflour mixture to thicken it further, it just depends on personal preference.