leg of lamb stuffed with olives, bread, pinenuts and herbs (cosciotto d'agnello ripieno di olive, pane, pinoli e erbe aromatiche)

servings
6

method

Roasting a joint of lamb is still one of the most nostalgic times for me. A thousand pictures go through my head just thinking about my old man slicing lamb on a Sunday. This brilliant roast lamb dish uses Italian staples to make a delicious stuffing – it’s nice to get all the herbs in the ingredients list, but if you can only get hold of a couple, don’t worry.

Try to buy the lamb from your own butcher or a supermarket with a qualified butcher’s section. Tell them you want a nice leg of lamb, preferably organic, with the H-bone and thigh-bone tunnel-boned and removed. This sounds complicated but it’s just butchers’ jargon. It means the top half of the leg has the bone removed leaving just the ankle bone, allowing you to stuff it. For the veg, turnips, Jerusalem artichokes, celeriac, fennel and parsnips are all good.

Peel a couple of garlic cloves and pop them into a food processor – as it’s whizzing add your mixed herbs. Add the pancetta and anchovies and whiz again. Scrape the mixture into a bowl and add the bread to the processor. Whiz to coarse breadcrumbs, and add to the bowl with the pinenuts and olives. Add salt and pepper and scrunch everything together with your hands. If it looks too dry, add a drop of boiling water. Push the stuffing into the cavity in the lamb. You can roast it stuffed like this, or you can tie it up with string, pushing some rosemary underneath. Pat it with olive oil on the outside and season with salt and pepper.

Toss the potatoes and remaining garlic with the bay leaves, the rest of the rosemary and some olive oil, salt and pepper and put them into a roasting tray with the lamb in the middle. It’s unusual to see rare or pink roasted meats in Italy, so we’re going to cook our lamb like they do. Roast it for about an hour and a half at 200ºC/400ºF/gas 6. Trust me – it will be juicy and delicious! After half an hour, the Italian way is to start basting the lamb with a swig of wine over the meat and veg every 15 minutes or so until the meat is cooked. Remove the veg to a dish when cooked to keep them warm.

When the lamb is cooked, let it rest for 15 minutes. It’s nice served with some simply cooked greens. The Italians prefer the goodness from the meat juices to be cooked into the vegetables in the tray rather than make gravy.

• from Jamie's Italy

ingredients

• 1 whole bulb of spring garlic, broken into cloves, unpeeled
• 3 good handfuls of mixed fresh herbs (mint, parsley, oregano, thyme), leaves picked
• 6 slices of pancetta
• 3 anchovy fillets
100g rustic bread, torn into 2.5cm pieces (don’t use prepackaged sliced bread)
• a large handful of pinenuts
• a handful of green olives, stones removed
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 x 2kg leg of lamb, prepped as above
• a large bunch of fresh rosemary
• olive oil
• 2kg good roasting spuds, peeled and halved
• a sprig of bay leaves
• a bottle of red wine

share this page

daily recipe rss

new recipe rss

tried this recipe or a similar one? share your tips...

1. by Elaine on Tue 12 Apr 2011 @ 20:11

Seems good, but I'm not clear about the parsnips, turnip, etc. Are these cooked separately?

2. by Alice Lawson on Fri 08 Apr 2011 @ 13:49

Wow! Finally, there is a different recipe for roast leg of lamb, and it sounds absolutley delicious. Don't mean to boast, but I know a good recipe when I see one. That's it for my next dinner party. Thank you Jamie Oliver for continuing to inspire and delight. Yeaaaah!!!!!!

3. by Dan on Tue 05 Apr 2011 @ 13:01

This is a great dish the stuffing is unbelievabley good though I prefer the meat a bit pink so I plan to cut 20 -30 min of the cooking time.<br /> The sardines and the olives really make this special.

4. by Jim on Sun 25 Oct 2009 @ 21:21

Fantastic,

the most difficult part of this dish was finding a butcher that could do the boning correctly! I ended up with a joint, opened out and then stuffed & rolled - it made not a bit of difference. I have to admit to cheating and still making a gravy from the juices/loose bits of stuffing etc. but this, with the wine basting made for the richest, meatiest sauce I have ever tasted. Universally loved by all - I have to say that I am not always Jamie's biggest fan but this recipe, combined with an approach that says, "just do it & see what happens," is an absolute winner. Hats off!!

5. by Ash on Tue 01 Sep 2009 @ 14:55

Amazing.

The stuffing is incredible. I don't have a food processor so the stuffing was quite course but this added to it's texture and meant that each mouthful had a slightly different flavour.

6. by Ash on Sat 29 Aug 2009 @ 20:26

I'm cooking this for friends tomorrow, debating whether to cook it through as Jamie suggests or leave it a bit pink.

leave comments

related recipes

pizza with spicy salami, courgette, basil, tomato and mozzarella
Smear your tomato sauce evenly over the pizza base. Lay over your courgettes and basil, then your salami...
Read more