Recipes

  • Roast lamb Roman style

    Roast lamb Roman style

    This is a very, very tasty dish. The ingredients are simple enough but collectively they pull together to deliver a hearty, winter-themed flavour. It is based on a dish of baby lamb demonstrated by Melbourne chef Guy Grossi at one of his masterclasses.


    Having cooked it for friends or more than one occasion it remains a firm favourite for its easy one-pot method, delicious flavour and grand presentation at the table in the cooking vessel. In my case that’s a huge, heavy, cast iron fry-pan bought from a sporting/camping goods store. This fabulous receptacle just fits into my generously-sized Australian made oven filled with enough lamb and potatoes to feed eight people. If you have a prissy European oven or no single large baking dish, but still need to feed the multitudes, decamp it into two dishes. You’ll need more liquid than is stated for the one pot version.

    With no baby lamb available my butcher kindly jointed some lamb shoulder and neck meat into large serving chunks. We conspired to leave the bone in, in a departure from Grossi’s original, but it still worked a treat.

    Real baby lamb will cook in a little over an hour especially if it is boned. Standard lamb with the bone left in will take a couple of hours in a moderate to low oven. You can part cook the dish ahead up to the stage of sprinkling over the breadcrumbs and parmesan. Available light fading fast on an overcast afternoon, the photograph here was taken after barely an hour’s cooking with another half or so to go before the addition of the crumb topping but you’ll get the idea of how glorious the final presentation is topped with golden crumbs.
    The dish deserves a great wine – hard to go past Marchese Antinori Chianti Classico

    The Recipe

    Roast lamb Roman style (for eight)
    2.2kg lamb from shoulder and neck cut into about 20 serving sized chunks, bone in
    2 onions, chopped
    6 cloves garlic, cut into quarters
    8 rosemary springs
    8 sage leaves
    good handful of flat-leaf parsley, chopped
    1 large fresh red chilli, chopped
    salt and pepper
    6-8 medium sized waxy-fleshed potatoes, cut into large chunks
    400g tin Italian chopped tomatoes and their juice
    1 cup extra virgin oil
    half bottle dry white wine
    water
    100g grated Parmesan
    200g fresh breadcrumbs
    extra sprigs of rosemary
    Pre-heat the oven to 170C. Mix together the breadcrumbs and Parmesan.
    Drizzle a little of the oil over the base of a heavy, wide, baking dish. Place the lamb in the dish and scatter over the onion, garlic, sage, rosemary, parsley and chilli. Season generously with salt (more than you think) and black pepper and pour over half the remaining olive oil. Massage the lamb pieces with all the seasonings. Tuck the potatoes among the lamb pieces. Spoon over the tomatoes and juice. Pour over the white wine and then drizzle with the rest of the olive oil.
    Add enough water to come about half way up the lamb pieces. This will provide moisture during cooking and will allow for some delicious juices at the end of the cooking time. Cook for about an hour and a half, turning the lamb and potatoes around in the cooking juices from time to time.
    Sprinkle over the crumb mix. Place back in the oven for another hour or until the crust is golden and the lamb is cooked. Top up with water from time to time to keep the lamb moist and some serving juices in the pan. Tuck in a few fresh rosemary sprigs here and there just before serving.
    Serve in the cooking vessel with a green vegetable or salad on the side.

  • Herb focaccia with prosciutto filling

    Herb focaccia with prosciutto filling

    In Italy cafes everywhere are well stocked with any time snack treats. We don’t think of Italy as sandwich territory but they do it particularly well.

    Tramezzini are divine and with their trimmed off crusts and soft white bread they are refined enough for any high tea. They’re distinguished from their Anglo counterparts though by particularly piquant and savoury fillings. A little more rustic are the whole wheels of focaccia filled with moist and tasty bits and pieces. This may simply be slices of fresh mozzarella and prosciutto (that can be eaten hot or cold) or more elaborate mixtures such as the one below. All are delicious, as much because of the quality of the bread as the filling. In this respect proper Italian focaccia is an entirely different beast to the puffy, cakey and bland pretenders that we often see in our shops.

    You can make the focaccia in a mixer with the dough hook attached or in a food processor. A machine is desirable because the wet nature of dough makes it a bit awkward to knead entirely by hand. For most Italian breads it is better to err on the side of wetness when making the dough. I had one of those oops moments when preparing this focaccia dough after I added what I thought was just a little extra water. Given that the dough never quite left the sides of the bowl to form a nice ball I thought I’d gone too far. Wrong – it was the best focaccia I’ve yet made. If the dough does seem very sticky when you turn it onto the bench to give a turn or two by hand, sprinkle it with more flour and keep your hands well coated.

    Make sure to use strong bread flour when making any bread. It has more protein than standard flour. Developing the protein through kneading is what makes the dough elastic enough to rise. Generally I use Lowan’s Unbleached but the neighbourhood deli had a bag of special Italian bread flour and despite being initially sceptical it did make a beautiful focaccia. Lovely luncheon dish with a glass of Anselmi San Vincenzo Soave.

    The Recipe

    Herb focaccia with prosciutto and rocket filling
    For the focaccia:
    In a mixer bowl with the dough hook attached place 300g bread flour, 1 tbsp chopped rosemary leaves, 4 sage leaves torn into tiny pieces, 2 cloves garlic finely chopped, 1 tsp salt (generous), half teaspoon sugar and 1 tsp instant dried yeast. Blend together. With the machine running pour in 200ml medium hot water with a tablespoon olive oil. Knead the dough in the machine on medium speed for four minutes. Turn onto a well floured surface and knead for a minute or until smooth. Place in a warm, oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and tea towel and stand over hot water (or in a warm place) until double in size – 1-2 hours. Knock down, knead lightly again and then press out into a large round about 1.5cm thick. Dimple the surface well with your fingers and leave to rise again – 30-45 minutes. Meanwhile heat the oven to 220C. When the dough is ready gently smear generously with olive oil and sprinkle with salt flakes. Bake for 10 minutes then turn down heat to 180C to bake for a further 10-15 minutes. Cool on a rack.
    For the filling:
    Chop 15 slices prosciutto. Chop 2 large ripe tomatoes or 6 cherry tomatoes into small pieces. Rinse a tablespoon of salted capers and dry before chopping finely. Chop the white and yolk of a hard-boiled egg. Mix together the prosciutto, tomato, capers and egg with half a cup Bests (blue lid) mayonnaise.
    To assemble:
    Cut the cooled focaccia in half horizontally. Spread the bottom very lightly with a smear of mayonnaise. Layer generously with baby rocket leaves. Spread the prosciutto filling over this. Place the top on and press down gently. Cut the focaccia carefully with a bread knife into 8-10 wedges.

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