I came across a version of this recipe in the Silver Palate ‘New Basics’ Cookbook. The Silver Palate was a gourmet take out food store on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, opened in 1977 by two women, Julee Rosso & Sheila Lukins. It was a novel concept for its time and they eventually wrote 3 cookbooks. They are all good cookbooks and mine have fallen apart over the years from usage. Their ethos; great ingredients cooked with care make good food. Good food shared with friends makes great meals.

I’ve adapted this recipe over time, eliminating garlic, adding more vegetables and a mustard coating for the lamb. This is a great meal, with reasonably quick prep and not much fuss. One big dish to wash up. Eight generous servings. It’s a family style food with gourmet level taste. I recently cooked this dish in a self catering holiday let – notoriously short on speciality cooking implements. The only thing I really missed was my handheld mandolin but I had a great sous chef in my friend Lisa. She’s an artist (see her work here) and her nimble fingers made short work of the repeated ‘slice thin’ instructions below. Sharp knives and a sous chef or a mandolin highly recommended. You’ll also need a little rack or some skewers to hold the lamb slightly above the level of the vegetable gratin.

Time to get cooking.

Ingredients

• 1 kilo of good quality potatoes, well scrubbed, thinly sliced
• salt and pepper
• 2 large onions thinly sliced
• 2 medium courgettes, thinly sliced
• 5 medium tomatoes cored and thinly sliced
• 100 mls dry white wine
• 100 mls olive oil
• 1 leg of lamb, with bone in (approximately 2 – 3 kilos)
• 3 tablespoons of grainy mustard
• Several sprigs of fresh rosemary

Method

• Strip the leaves of the rosemary and chop small. Reserve half for the mustard coating.
• Preheat oven to 200°C (180C if fan)
• Pour a slug of olive oil in a gratin pan or roasting tin.
• Arrange potato slices in bottom of pan.
• Season with salt, pepper, some of the rosemary.
• Add a layer of courgettes and seasoning.
• Add a layer of onions and seasoning.
• Add a layer of tomatoes and seasoning on top.
• Drizzle with wine and oil.
• Trim the thicker portions of fat from the leg of lamb.
• Mix the remaining rosemary with the mustard and just enough olive oil to make a thick paste.
• Cut several shallow cuts in the lamb fat.
• Place lamb on a sturdy rack directly on top of gratin pan so the lovely fat and juices run into the vegetables.
• Season the lamb with salt & pepper, then cover well with mustard paste.
• Roast, uncovered, for about 1 hour and 15 minutes for rare lamb (1 hour and 45 minutes for well-done); no need to turn the lamb or baste.
• Remove from oven and allow to sit for 20 minutes before carving.

If you’re feeling the need, you can include a green vegetable or a salad with the lamb and gratin. (We didn’t). The Davinator suggests a Grignan-Les Adehemar as the perfect wine accompaniment. Or, another mid-Rhone syrah based red wine.

Thank you for reading the blog and cooking the recipes. Find me on Twitter and Instagram ‘@mamadolson’ on both.