Medieval Pigeon Pie - cooking recipe

Ingredients

10 pigeons, breasts
1 onion
1 celery rib
1 leek
1 carrot
4 tablespoons olive oil
4 ounces chicken livers
7 ounces pancetta lardons
7 ounces button mushrooms
7 ounces shallots, finely chopped
1 tablespoon tomato paste
2 1/2 cups game stock or 2 1/2 cups chicken stock
10 black peppercorns
1 sprig rosemary
10 sage leaves
1 pinch thyme
1 lb shortcrust pastry

Preparation

Cut the pigeon breasts into small pieces. Finely dice the onion, celery, leek and carrot.
Heat one tablespoon of olive oil in a frying pan over a moderate heat and fry the pigeon, chicken livers and pancetta in olive oil until lightly browned. Put into a pie dish.
Add a further tablespoon of the oil to the frying pan and fry the onion, celery, leek and carrot until golden, and then add this to the pie dish.
Fry the button mushrooms and shallots in the remaining oil and add to the pie dish.
Spoon tomato paste into the pan and cook for 1 minute. Deglaze the pan with the stock. Add the peppercorns, rosemary, sage and thyme to the stock, and bring to the boil.
Set the oven to 375\u00b0F Pour the stock over the meat in the pie dish.
Roll the pastry out to cover the pie and bake for 45 minutes. Serve immediately.