Leg of lamb stuffed with olives, bread, pine nuts & herbs (Cosciotto d'agnello ripieno di olive, pane, pinoli e erbe aromatiche)
Roasting a joint of lamb is still one of the most nostalgic times for me. A thousand pictures go through my head just thinking about my old man slicing lamb on a Sunday. This brilliant roast lamb dish uses Italian staples to make a delicious stuffing – it's nice to get all the herbs in the ingredients list, but if you can only get hold of a couple, don't worry. Try to buy the lamb from your own butcher or a supermarket with a qualified butcher's section. Tell them you want a nice leg of lamb, preferably organic, with the H-bone and thigh-bone tunnel-boned and removed. This sounds complicated but it's just butchers' jargon. It means the top half of the leg has the bone removed leaving just the ankle bone, allowing you to stuff it. For the veg, turnips, Jerusalem artichokes, celeriac, fennel and parsnips are all good.
Estimated Nutrition (whole recipe, rough)
Counts 17 of 18 ingredients — the other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and contribute nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume — 17 portions →
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 1 cup (125g) all-purpose | 455 |
| Lamb | 100g cooked | 294 |
| Anchovy | 100g | 210 |
| Pine Nut | 1 oz (28g) | 191 |
| Potato | 1 medium (173g) baked | 161 |
| Olive Oil | 1 tbsp (14g) | 119 |
| Wine | 2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml) | 25 |
| Clove | 1 tsp ground (2g) | 7 |
| Black Pepper | 1 tsp ground (2.3g) | 6 |
| Oregano | 1 tsp dried (1.8g) | 5 |
| Garlic | 1 clove (3g) | 4 |
| Thyme | 1 tsp dried (1.4g) | 4 |
| Olive | 1 large (4g) | 4 |
| Rosemary | 1 tsp dried (1.2g) | 4 |
| Bay Leaf | 1 leaf (0.6g) | 2 |
| Parsley | 1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g) | 1 |
| Salt | 1 tsp (6g) | 0 |
| Peppermint | not in our table | 0 |
Totals for the whole recipe, adding one typical portion per ingredient — listed above. Quantities in the recipe are not counted, so this is a rough guide only — not suitable for medical or dietary planning.
Ingredients
- 1 whole bulb spring garlic, broken into cloves, unpeeled
- 3 good handfuls mixed fresh herbs (mint, parsley, oregano, thyme), leaves picked
- 6 slices higher-welfare pancetta
- 3 anchovy fillets
- 100 g rustic bread, torn into 2.5cm pieces
- 1 large handful pine nuts
- 1 handful green olives, stones removed
- sea salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- 2 kg quality leg of lamb
- 1 large bunch fresh rosemary
- olive oil
- 2 kg good roasting potatoes, peeled and halved
- 1 sprig fresh bay leaves
- 1 bottle red wine