Lamb Ragu by Louis Korovilas

Louis Korovilas

Louis Korovilas

10th May 2018
Louis Korovilas

Lamb Ragu by Louis Korovilas

Lamb Ragu by Louis Korovila

Comforting and tasty, this flavoursome recipe is an ideal way to utilise a seasonal piece of lamb.

Ingredients

  • For the pasta:
  • 500g 00 flour
  • 3 large eggs and 2 extra yolks all at room temperature
  • Pinch of salt
  • For the lamb ragu:
  • 1 lamb neck on the bone roughly about 1 kilo
  • 2 large bunches rosemary
  • 2 cloves of garlic (peeled)
  • 4 anchovy fillets
  • 300 ml of condimento morbido (or white balsamic vinegar)
  • 3 tbsp of good olive oil
  • 3tbsp veg oil (for frying)
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • 2 tbsp of all purpose flour
  • A splash of white wine
  • 500 ml of good quality chicken stock

Method

To make the pasta dough
Place the flour in a mound on a clean surface and create a well in the centre and sprinkle the salt inside.
One by one add the eggs followed by the yolks to the well using your finger in a swirling motion to incorporate the eggs to the flour and salt mix. You should find yourself with a crumb like mix, now bring this mix together using the palm of your hand until you have a firm smooth dough, this should take about 10 minutes.
Wrap your dough in cling film and leave to rest in the fridge for about one hour or as long as need be, remove from the fridge one hour before use.
To make the ragu
Pick the individual leaves from the rosemary (avoid any stalks or woody bits) place the garlic, anchovies, rosemary and condimento morbido in a food processor and blitz until you have a green sauce (should look like a very loose pesto) and set to one side.
Generously season your lamb neck with salt and pepper, sprinkle with all-purpose flour patting off the excess with your hands.
Bring the veg oil up to a high heat in a large casserole pan , you should hear a sizzle as you place the lamb neck in the pan turn the meat until it has a golden brown colour all round.
Add the white wine to deglaze and reduce until the liquid evaporates. Now add your green sauce just to cover the meat, topping up with a little chicken stock if necessary bring to the boil then turn down to the lowest heat immediately leaving to gently simmer for around 5 hours. Now return to the pasta.
Once the pasta is back at room temperature, use a rolling pin to roll out the pasta until about 1 cm thick and can comfortably pass through the machine. Continue passing the dough through the machine reducing the thickness setting until you have a sheet of pasta about as thick as a 5 pence piece.
Lightly dust a clean surface with flour and lay your pasta sheet out. Using a sharp knife cut your pasta in to ribbons 3 cm wide and 15 to 20 cm long. Dust lightly with flour and set aside to use.
The lamb should be falling off the bone, leave to cool in the cooking liquid to avoid drying out. Pull the meat off the bone using your hands and discard the bone ( check for small fragments) flake the meat and return it to the cooking liquid and warm through on a low to medium heat.
Bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil adding your pappardelle one by one stirring as you go to avoid sticking together and after about 2 and a half minutes your pasta should be ready (remove one to test) remove your pasta using tongs and add to the ragu add olive oil and a little cooking water from the pasta or chicken stock to achieve the right consistency and serve.

In these challenging times…

The Staff Canteen team are taking a different approach to keeping our website independent and delivering content free from commercial influence. Our Editorial team have a critical role to play in informing and supporting our audience in a balanced way. We would never put up a paywall and restrict access – The Staff Canteen is open to all and we want to keep bringing you the content you want; more from younger chefs, more on mental health, more tips and industry knowledge, more recipes and more videos. We need your support right now, more than ever, to keep The Staff Canteen active. Without your financial contributions this would not be possible.

Over the last 12 years, The Staff Canteen has built what has become the go-to platform for chefs and hospitality professionals. As members and visitors, your daily support has made The Staff Canteen what it is today. Our features and videos from the world’s biggest name chefs are something we are proud of. We have over 500,000 followers across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and other social channels, each connecting with chefs across the world. Our editorial and social media team are creating and delivering engaging content every day, to support you and the whole sector - we want to do more for you.

A single coffee is more than £2, a beer is £4.50 and a large glass of wine can be £6 or more.

Support The Staff Canteen from as little as £1 today. Thank you.