Creamy lemon, pancetta & rosemary turkey

Recipe uploaded by

Emma Lewis

4 ratings

Recipe by Emma Lewis

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1. Video tutorial: Carving a turkey

1. Heat oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6. Wash the turkey and pat dry. Strip the leaves from half the rosemary and thyme stalks and finely chop. In a bowl, combine the lemon zest, chopped herbs, pancetta and mascarpone. Season well.
2. Halve the zested lemons and stuff into the cavity, along with the remaining herb sprigs. Use your hand to loosen the skin lying over the breast of the turkey, to create a pocket. Push the mascarpone mixture under the breast skin to create a thick, even layer.
3. Put the onion slices into a large, flameproof roasting tin, place the turkey on top and cover loosely with foil. Cook for 3-3¾ hrs, until the juices of the bird run clear. Baste every 30 mins and uncover for the last 30 mins if needed, to brown the bird. When cooked, take the turkey from the oven, remove from the tin and leave to rest on a platter, covered loosely with foil, for 30 mins.
4. To make the gravy, pour away any excess fat from the roasting tin and discard the onion slices. Set the tin over a medium heat, then sprinkle over the flour. Stir through and cook for 2 mins. Slowly whisk in the wine and stock. Bring to a boil, scraping the bits from the bottom, then simmer over a low heat for 15 mins. Serve the gravy with the turkey.

Emma says...

When you carve into the breast you get a lovely layer of mascarpone mix, which subtly flavours the meat and keeps the breast moist.

Per serving

618 kcalories, protein 80g, carbohydrate 3g, fat 31 g, saturated fat 13g, fibre 0g, salt 1.17 g

Latest comments and suggestions

• dinie

  13 December 2007

  dinie rated and commented on this recipe

  

  Hello! Ive made this dish already once and I'm going to make it this year again! I didn't change a thing and all the ingredients worked very well together. The dish was fresh(lemon), hearty (pancetta) and the bird was moist. Due to the fact that our local village shop ran out of mascarpone, I used creme fraiche. But for this year I have the mascarpone already in the fridge! Turkey is in our country (The Netherlands) not as common available as in yours, but I find it worth the trouble ordering one. Christmas greetings from the dutch counrtyside, Dinie Kant

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• Jill ross

  16 January 2008

  Jill ross commented on this recipe

  This was voted the best Christmas turkey I have ever cooked by the whole family. Will certainly do it again next year.

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• PsyberPixie

  03 November 2008

  PsyberPixie rated and commented on this recipe

  

  I made a similar recipe to this quite a few years ago might even be the same recipe. I loved it im going to make this again :-)

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• carol

  10 December 2008

  carol commented on this recipe

  Can anyone make sense of recipe instruction number 2? It says 'strip the leaves from half the bowl' Does it mean to say strip the leaves from half of the herb thyme and rosemary?

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• Tora

  13 January 2009

  Tora rated and commented on this recipe

  

  First time ever cooking turkey and it came out great. Carol, I read it as strip half the thyme and rosemary leafs and that worked fine.

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• peacock

  30 January 2009

  peacock rated and commented on this recipe

  

  This was quite nice but I'll use another recipe for the turkey next Christmas.

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Ingredients

• 4.5-5kg oven-ready turkey , thawed if frozen, giblets removed
• 25g pack each rosemary and thyme
• 2 lemons , finely zested
• 80g pack sliced pancetta , chopped
• 150g pot mascarpone
• 2 onions , thickly sliced

FOR THE GRAVY

• 1 tbsp flour
• 100ml white wine
• 600ml turkey or chicken stock

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Difficulty and servings

Serves 8 - 10

Preparation and cooking times

Prep 25 mins

Cook 3 hrs min 3 hrs 45 mins

Ingredients

• 4.5-5kg oven-ready turkey , thawed if frozen, giblets removed
• 25g pack each rosemary and thyme
• 2 lemons , finely zested
• 80g pack sliced pancetta , chopped
• 150g pot mascarpone
• 2 onions , thickly sliced

FOR THE GRAVY

• 1 tbsp flour
• 100ml white wine
• 600ml turkey or chicken stock

Per serving

618 kcalories, protein 80g, carbohydrate 3g, fat 31 g, saturated fat 13g, fibre 0g, salt 1.17 g

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