This recipe is hard to cook for two, but as with most stews and slow-cooked cuts of meat it re-heats beautifully. It is the cinnamon that gives this dish the extra wow-factor. I stirred through some cubes of gruyere at the end – which was delicious – small cubes of haloumi or fetta would work just as well.
Serves 4
3 tablespoons olive oil
800g lamb meat (from shoulder or leg), trimmed and cut into 3cm pieces
2 red onions, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
600g tinned tomatoes with juice, chopped (tomatoes seem to come in 400g tins, so I used one tin and one fresh tomato, de-seeded and chopped)
1 piece cassia bark or cinnamon
30g butter
400g risoni or orzo
Grated parmesan, pecorino or kefalotiri cheese, to serve
Preheat the oven to 180º. Heat the olive oil in a heavy casserole and fry the lamb in batches until golden on all sides. Transfer the meat to a plate and add the onions to the casserole. Sauté the onions until golden and softened, stirring all the time so they don’t stick (you can add another drop of oil). Add the garlic and cook for another half a minute or so before returning the meat to the pan. Add the tomatoes, crushing them with a wooden spoon, season with salt and pepper and add the cassia or cinnamon and the butter. Let it bubble up for 5 minutes or so and then add a litre (4 cups) hot water. Cover and bake for 1 hour or until the lamb is tender.
Rinse the pasta in a fine sieve or colander, drain and add to the casserole. Mix through, cover and return it to the oven for another 15 minutes, or until the pasta is cooked and has absorbed most of the sauce. The cooking time will depend on the pasta – it takes longer to cook in the oven, so pasta that needs 7 minutes on the stovetop will take 15 minutes in the oven. You may need to add a little more hot water if it seems too dry. Serve hot, sprinkled with the grated cheese.
If you are not serving this immediately, remove the casserole from the oven before the pasta is completely cooked – the residual heat in the casserole dish will finish off the cooking.
It was the idea of cloudberries that first attracted me to this cookbook, and the gorgeous colours and illustrations sealed the deal, but the longer it sits on my shelf the more I find myself leafing through it. The collection of recipes spans many culinary cultures, making it a very handy book and an important part of my collection. With a Greek-Cypriot father, a Finnish mother, a childhood in South Africa, and now a home in Italy, Kiros offers an insightful glance into many cuisines.