We decided to have duck this year rather than turkey since it was just the two of us, and to therefore have a non-traditional menu to accompany it. Once the menu was set, I immediately realized that I was going to miss stuffing. so decided to incorporate the flavors of my mom's sage and onion stuffing in a basic no-knead foccacia dough and to serve that as the coffee table nibble while the duck cooked.
Though we attacked this straight from the oven, it tastes best at room temperature. I served this with Marmite butter, but next time I will make sage-butter instead.
1 recipe no-knead foccacia dough (linked above)
1 white onion, finely diced
2 tsps dried sage
1/3 cup butter
1 Tbsp white wine
Salt and white pepper to taste
Make the dough. Let it rise for a couple of hours. This is a wonderful recipe to have up your sleeve as it is incredibly easy to put together and will take anything that you throw at it. I plan to use it as the base for a cinnamon sugar breakfast bread over the Christmas holiday.
While the dough is rising, melt your butter in a large skillet and, as soon as it foams, add the onions and the sage. Salt and pepper well and cook for a few minutes, stirring often, until the onions are translucent. Add the wine and cook off the alcohol, a minute or so. Continue cooking until the onions are soft. Set aside to cool.
Once the dough has had a couple of hours to rise, add the onion mixture to the dough and gently fold the dough over again and again to incorporate the onions into the dough, trying not to knock out too many of the bubbles that have formed as the dough rises.
Cover and let rise until at least doubled in size (mine tripled in a cool kitchen) for an additional couple of hours before baking as directed in the recipe linked above.