Easter has arrived and, as is the tradition, I’m serving up some simple and delicious Irish spring lamb shoulder. While many people gravitate towards a leg of lamb, I’m a shoulder advocate any day of the week. The pricing of both parts of the lamb has levelled in the current climate, but shoulder offers a better balance of fat to meat for me. Yes, there’s not as much meat for the price, but what you do get is packed with flavour.
Slow roasting is my cooking method of choice – I absolutely love the soft meat and crispy fat on top. While the leg is best served pink, the shoulder needs long, slow roasting until it’s wobbling on the bone. This delivers some versatility for the leftovers as well. Crisped up in a pan with some cumin and chilli, poached eggs and yoghurt, they make for some serious brunch, while melting them down with capers and green herbs in a pan will deliver a fine coating for a simple pasta supper.
For this week’s dishes, I have looked to Italy for ideas to change up your Easter Sunday options. Fear not, minimal work and mess is my mantra here, and it’s something the Italians do so well in their cooking. Of course, with produce this good, you don’t need to overwork it. In fairness, lamb is one of the ingredients we produce that can stand up to the world’s best, particularly that reared on our Atlantic coast, with its high fat content and briny nature.
The first recipe pairs up seasonal broccoli, cooked with just a hint of bite and finished with a Piedmont-inspired dressing flavoured with roasted garlic and anchovy emulsified with all the warm juices from the base of the roasting tray. This isn’t pretty, but by god is it delicious. For the record, lamb and anchovy is one of the great flavour pairings.
The second recipe uses the roasting juices as a type of stock to cook “fregola” – a small hand-rolled pasta from Sardinia that is traditionally dried in the sun. I was introduced to it many years ago by the great Italian chef Francesco Mazzei and it has been a firm favourite in our house since. It cooks quickly, absorbs flavour and loves nothing more than hosting some slices of slow-cooked shoulder sprinkled in feta and spring greens. A feast for the eyes and the tastebuds, with minimal skill or effort required. That’s what home cooking is all about.
Happy Easter.
