Modern
Good Food Everyday
From
Good Food Everyday
season
1
episode
10
Lamb Stracotto with Olives and Orange
With
Gary Mehigan
Slow-braised lamb with olives, orange and anchovy. Italian Sunday lunch food.
About this recipe
An Italian slow-braised leg of lamb, anchovy and orange melted into the base, olives bobbing through. The meat goes in butterflied so it cooks evenly; after a few hours it shreds with the back of a spoon. Sunday lunch food, ladled over polenta or soft bread.
Stracotto (literally over-cooked, in the best possible sense) is the Tuscan and Umbrian technique for transforming tough, large cuts of meat into something silky through low, slow oven braising. The classic version uses beef chuck or short rib; this lamb version sits in the Pugliese and Calabrian tradition where lamb is the household meat and the slow oven is on most weekends.
The anchovy is the secret ingredient. Three or four anchovy fillets melted into the base oil at the start of the braise add depth, salt and umami that no one will be able to identify; the fish flavour disappears completely into the cook but the savoury foundation it provides is what separates a great stracotto from a competent one. The orange (zest in the marinade, juice in the braise) brightens the dish.
Butterflying the leg (removing the bone and opening the meat into a flat sheet) is the move that makes the dish work. The flat cut means the meat cooks evenly through; a whole bone-in leg would have an undercooked centre while the outside dried out. Three hours at 170 degrees in a heavy casserole with the lid on; rest for thirty minutes before pulling apart. Ladle over soft polenta, with crusty bread on the side. A glass of Chianti or Nero d'Avola.
Ingredients
- 2kg boneless Tasman Butchers Farm 88 Leg of Lamb - butterflied
- 1 pinch Pepper
- 1/4 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 2 whole Red Onions chopped into 1cm dice
- 4 whole Garlic clove peeled and left whole
- 2 whole Anchovy rinsed and dried
- 2 whole Orange quartered seeded, and sliced into 1/2cm quarter-moons
- 1 cup Tuscan Green Olives
- 1/2 cup fresh Orange Juice
- 1 cup Chianti or other dry red wine
- 1 cup Sugo
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 170°C. Trim excess fat from the Tasman Butchers Farm 88 butterflied leg of lamb and season lightly with pepper.
2. Heat the extra virgin olive oil in a large, heavy-based casserole pan over medium-high heat. Add the lamb and brown well on both sides, allowing it to caramelise deeply, about 10 minutes in total. Remove from the pan and set aside.
3. In the same pan, add the chopped red onion and cook until softened and lightly caramelised. Add the whole garlic cloves, anchovies and sliced orange, and cook for a further 4–6 minutes, allowing the anchovies to dissolve and the flavours to develop.
4. Add the olives and pour in the red wine, allowing it to simmer briefly and reduce slightly. Stir in the sugo and fresh orange juice and bring the mixture to a gentle simmer.
5. Return the lamb to the casserole, ensuring it is well coated in the sauce. Bring to a gentle simmer, then cover and transfer to the oven.
6. Cook for 1½ to 2 hours at 160–170°C, or until the lamb is fork-tender and the sauce has developed a rich depth of flavour.
7. Remove the lamb from the oven and allow it to rest briefly. Slice and serve with the sauce spooned generously over the top.
Gary Mehigan
Gary Mehigan spent eleven seasons as a judge on MasterChef Australia before turning his attention to the road. He hosts Around the World on Two Plates and Good Food Everyday, cooking through markets and family kitchens from Spain to Sri Lanka. His own kitchen instinct sits in classical French technique with a forensic eye for produce.
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