Roast leg of lamb with rosemary, garlic and anchovies
A great Sunday roast for a feast in the Spring. This recipe has a stuffing which runs through the leg as well so every part of the leg is nicely flavoured throughout.
Servings: 8 people
Ingredients
- 2-2.5 kg Leg of lamb bone in (if deboned, will need to adjust cooking time)
- 1/2 tin anchovies half chopped finely, retain oil from tin
- 1/2 tin anchovies chop into 1cm thin strips
- 1/2 bulb garlic cloves to be chopped finely
- 1/2 bulb garlic chopped into thin strips
- 10 g fresh rosemary leaves only, leave as whole
- 5 g rosemary if using fresh, chop finely. Otherwise can use dried
- 1 tbsp capers chopped finely
- 1-2 onions white and/or red, sliced
- 500ml water (as needed and adjust according to size of roasting tin)
- 300 ml red wine
- 2 tbsp flour
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 220C. Remove leg of lamb from the fridge about 30 minutes before cooking
- Using a deep roasting tray, line the tray with sliced onions
- Make a number of incisions into the lamb approx. 3cm deep using a sharp knife. All over the surface of the leg of lamb
- Using a longer, sharp knife, make a few deeper incisions into the thicker parts of the leg approx 10cm deep
- Into each of the smaller incisions, insert a sprig or two of rosemary, slither of garlic and anchovies each. Repeat all over the leg.
- In a small bowl, mix together the finely chopped garlic, anchovies, rosemary (dried if using) and capers, ready for use
- Into each of the deeper incisions, spread the finely chopped stuffing throughout the leg
- Place the prepared leg of lamb on top of the bed of onions
- Drizzle the oil from the anchovies onto the leg of lamb
- Roast the leg of lamb for 20 minutes at 220C
- Turn the temperature down to 180C and add the water to the roasting tray. Cook for the remaining time at 25 minutes/500g.
- Remove lamb from the roasting tin and rest on a pre-heated baking tray for 15-20 minutes.
- Whilst resting, prepare the gravy by pouring all the juices from the roasting tin into a saucepan. Add the flour and red wine and bring to the boil whilst constantly stirring. Add more water to volumise the gravy. Adjust taste with salt and pepper then keep warm on a low heat.
- Carve the lamb and serve with roast potatoes and vegetables of choice.
Notes
- If using oil from the anchovies, no additional salt or oil is needed as the anchovies oil more than adequately flavours the leg
- If a bit-ty gravy is prepared, the onions from the roasting tin can be added to the gravy and either pureed or left whole