Lamb Stuffed with Roast Garlic and Spinach
Share this recipe with your friends!
Makes 8 servings
There are few main course more festive than a beautifully browned roast
stuffed with a savory filling. Buy an 8-pound leg of lamb and have the butcher bone and
trim it into a boneless roast of about 5 pounds, trimming away almost all of the fat on the
outside of the leg. Ask the butcher to saw the bones into large pieces for the sauce.
Sauce Base:
2 pounds lamb bones, sawed by the butcher into pieces about 4-inches long
1 medium onion, quartered
1 medium carrot, coarsely chopped
1 medium celery rib, coarsely chopped
1 cup dry red wine
3 parsley springs
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 bay leaf
1/4 teaspoon whole peppercorns
Stuffing:
1 head garlic, separated into unpeeled cloves (about 12 plump cloves)
2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1/4 cup pine nuts
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 (l0-ounce) packages frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed well to remove excess moisture
1/2 cup dried unseasoned breadcrumbs
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
2 large eggs, beaten
1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary or 1 1/2 teaspoons crumbled dried rosemary
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1/8 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1 (5-pound) boneless leg of lamb, trimmed, untied
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
- Make the sauce base: Position a rack in top third of oven and preheat to
450°F. Place lamb bones in a large baking pan and bake until beginning to brown, about 45 minutes.
Add onion, carrot and celery and continue baking until bones are deeply
browned, about 30 additional minutes. Transfer bones and vegetables to a medium saucepan
and discard fat in pan.
- Place the roasting pan over high heat. Add 1 cup red wine to pan and
scrape up browned bits on bottom of pan with wooden spoon. Pour into saucepan with
bones. Add enough cold water to cover bones by 1 inch. Bring to a boil over high heat,
skimming off any foam rising to surface. Reduce heat to low. Add the parsley, thyme,
garlic, bay leaf and peppercorns. Simmer gently until reduced to about 3 1/2 cups, 2 to 2 1/2
hours. Strain the sauce base in a medium bowl. (The sauce base can be prepared up
to 1 day ahead, cooled, covered and refrigerated.)
- Make the stuffing: Reduce oven to 400° F. In a small bowl, toss the
garlic cloves with 1 tablespoon of the oil. Place in center of a 12-inch square of
aluminum foil and fold to enclose tightly. Place foil packet on a baking sheet and bake until
garlic is tender, about 20 minutes. Unwrap the garlic and cool until easy to handle. Using a
small, sharp knife, peel garlic, leaving cloves as whole as possible, set aside.
- In a dry, medium skillet over medium heat, cook the pine nuts, stirring
often, until toasted, about 3 minutes. Transfer the pine nuts to a plate and set aside.
- In same skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Add the onion and cook
until softened, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a medium bowl and add the garlic cloves, pine
nuts, spinach, bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese, eggs, rosemary, salt, pepper and
nutmeg; mix well.
- Open up the lamb roast, fat side down, on a work surface. Using a sharp
knife, butterfly the thickest pieces of meat and open them out to extend the length
of the lamb to about 14 inches. (To butterfly the lamb, make deep cuts into the thickest
parts of roast almost parallel to the work surface, but not cutting through meat. Open up
resulting flaps, and meat will eventually become of a more even thickness and longer at
the same time.)
- Spread spinach mixture evenly onto lamb roast, leaving a 1-inch border
around all sides. Starting at a short end, roll up the roast and tie crosswise and
lengthwise with kitchen twine. Brush with the olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
(The roast can be prepared up to 4 hours ahead of baking, covered with plastic wrap and refrigerated.)
- Preheat the oven to 450°F. Place the roast on a rack in a roasting pan.
Roast for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees and continue roasting until a meat
thermometer inserted in the center of the roast reads l30 ° F. for medium-rare
meat, about 2 hours. Transfer the roast to a serving platter and let stand for 10 minutes
before carving.
- Discard all fat in pan. Place pan on top of stove (over two burners, if
necessary) and pour in sauce base. Bring to a boil over high heat, scraping up browned bits
on bottom of pan with a wooden spoon. Boil until sauce is thickened and reduced to about
1 1/2 cups, 8 to 10 minutes. Pour into a warmed sauceboat.
- Discard string from roast. Using a long, sharp knife, cut crosswise
into thick slices.1Serve immediately, drizzling a few spoonfuls of sauce over each serving.
|
