Roast Chicken with Tarragon and Citron Confit

If well cooked, this chicken is delicious and the sauce has a delicate lemon scent.

Ingredients: A small chicken or a cockerel, 2 thick slices of fresh bacon, Citron confit, Tarragon, Olive oil, Salt and Pepper

Take a baking pan with high walls and with a lid.
The ideal is a Pyrex baking dish.
Ungetene the bottom and appoggiateci chicken.
Guarnsh the breast with 2 slices of fresh pork bacon that with some toothpicks.


Put inside the chicken at least 4 slices of citron confit (a total of at least ½ lemon) and add a generous teaspoon of dried tarragon.
Pour over the chicken a few tablespoons of olive oil
Add salt and pepper. Cover the pan and place it in the oven at 180° C for 1 hour and a half and after continue cooking until at a temperature of about 160°C until tender.
Check the cooking. The sauce must be clear, abundant and without burning.

Citron Confit (Preserved Lemon moroccan style)

This preparation comes from Morocco where it is traditional .
Usually lemons are left whole and are engraved at the petiole practicing a cross cut quite deep. Sometimes, in some more traditional recipes to lemon are also added pink berries of pepper.

These lemons are preserved in large jars with salt and water and are used in many recipes .

European chefs discovered them a few years ago and since then the citron confit have become part of the ingredients of many fine dishes, both sweet and savory.

In my recipe I suggest you cut lemons into slices because in this way you will be able to store them in less space and also to use them more easily.


Ingredients : Lemons untreated, salt

Wash lemons and cut each of them into 8 wedges or slices.
Arrange the lemon slices in layers in a glass jar, cover each layer with salt pressing it well.
At this point you can also add juniper and peppercorns, if desired.
Close the jar.
Wait at least 3 weeks before you start to use

Mastroberardino: a family and its wine

The Mastroberardino family for over two centuries deals with wine.
The first evidence of the presence in Irpinia date back to the Land Registry Bourbon, in the middle of the eighteenth century, a time when the family chose the village in the province of Avellino Atripalda their headquarters, where they are still located on the old cellars, and there originated in offspring that their fate inextricably tied to the cult of the wine. Since then I have spent 10 generations that have carried on the business of the family of origin ups and downs: the phylloxera, the first and the second world war that depopulated the countryside and the earthquake that struck so disastrously in the 70 territory.

"We defended our traditions and our tastes gaining recognition worldwide. Pliny spoke of Fiano and Falanghina in these areas, we fought to preserve the history" was use to tell to those who visited the winery Antonio Mastroberardino, the guru of wines from Campania, who died last January aged 86. It 'about her though many winemakers have retained the Irpinia Aglianico vines, Taurasi, Fiano and against any Greek fashion, against any approval of taste would say almost ahead of its time, at a time when the Ministry of agriculture pushed to replace old varieties with more productive, Trebbiano and Cabernet.