Lamb Ragù

• Prep time: 0:30:00
• Cook time: 4:00:00
• Serves: 4

Ingredients

Lamb rub

• 1 tablespoon black peppercorns
• 1 tablespoon coriander seeds
• 1 tablespoon fennel seeds
• 95 gram flaked sea salt
• 700 gram lamb neck on the bone

Lamb ragù

• 2 dimensionless carrots
• 2 dimensionless celery stalks
• 1 dimensionless red onion
• 3 clove garlic
• 2 tablespoon tomato purée
• 50 milliliter red or white wine
• 400 gram chopped tomatoes
• 2 dimensionless bay leaf
• 2 sprig thyme
• 2 sprig oregano

To serve

• 400 gram dried pappardelle

Method

• In a pestle and mortar or spice grinder, grind together the black peppercorns, coriander seeds, and fennel seeds into a fine powder. Add the flaked sea salt and grind together. Place lamb neck on a rimmed plate and liberally rub the salt mixture into it to coat. Wrap the plate containing the lamb neck completely in cling film and refrigerate for 24--48 hours.

• When ready to start preparing the ragù, finely chop the carrots, celery, and red onion. Finely dice the garlic. Pick and finely chop the thyme leaves. Pick the oregano leaves, keeping them whole.

• Remove the plate containing the lamb neck from the fridge. Rinse the remaining salt mixture off the lamb in a colander over a sink. Place the lamb on a plate lined with paper towels, and pat dry to remove as much of the water as possible.

• Heat olive oil in a large cast iron pot over a medium-high heat. When the oil begins to shimmer, add the lamb to the pan. Sear for 2--3 minutes on each side until it turns golden in colour. Transfer the lamb to a clean plate and set aside.

• Allow the pot to cool enough to avoid burning the vegetables. Add the carrot, celery, and onion. Cook for 8--10 minutes until softened. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute longer. Scrape any fond from the bottom of the pan using a wooden spoon. Add the tomato purée and stir to coat all the vegetables.

• If using a slow cooker, transfer the soffritto to the slow cooker pot and use the wine to deglaze the cast iron pot.

• Add the chopped tomatoes, bay leaves, thyme and oregano, stirring to combine. Place the lamb into the slow cooker pot and add enough water to just cover the lamb. Cover and simmer on a low heat until the meat is tender and falling off the bone. This will take approximately 3.5--4 hours.

• When the lamb is ready, use tongs to remove it from the pan and place it on a plate. Also remove the bay leaves and discard.

• Turn up the heat to reduce the sauce while you finish preparing the lamb. Use two forks to remove the lamb from the bones, being careful to exclude any small bones. Flake any larger pieces of meat into bite-sized chunks. When the sauce has reduced sufficiently, return the meat to the sauce.

• Prepare the parpadelle. Reserve 100 ml of the cooking liquid in case it is needed to loosen the sauce.

• Spoon 4/5 of the ragù over the drained parpadelle and gently toss to coat the pasta. Add reserved pasta cooking liquid as required to produce a saucy consistency. Serve in pasta bowls, spooning over the remaining ragù.

Notes

• Source recipe by Joe Vigorito (L'Artusi, NYC) includes a chopped fennel bulb in the soffritto. I've excluded it to avoid an overwhelming aniseed flavour.
• I've used Maldon salt in place of kosher salt in the past, which works well. I'm not clear what the difference between kosher salt and flaked sea salt is, they are plausibly the same thing.

References

• Bucatini with Lamb Ragù