A true comfort dish – slow cooked lamb shanks in a thick flavorful tomato braise. The best part about making this dish is that you’ll have 2 nights worth of meals. The first night serve them on the bone over polenta, mashed potatoes or rice. The next night you can make a Lamb Ragu Pasta — shred any left over lamb off the bone, mix the lamb and left over sauce with additional Due Cellucci Traditional sauce (as needed) and serve over pasta.
Ingredients
4 lamb shanks, around 1 lb each shank
2 tsp salt
Pepper
2 – 3 tbsp olive oil
1 cup onion, finely diced (1 small or 1/2 large)
1 cup carrot, finely diced (2 large carrots)
1 cup celery, finely diced (3-4 med stalks)
3 garlic cloves, minced
2½ cups red wine, full bodied
28 oz can crushed tomatoes
1 jar of Due Cellucci Traditional sauce
2 tbsp tomato paste
2 cups chicken stock
5 sprigs of thyme (you will remove these at end so can tie them together to make it easier to find)
2 Bay leaves
Preparation:
Preheat the oven to 350oF
- Sprinkle lamb shanks with 1 tsp of salt and black pepper.
- Heat 2 tbsp of olive oil in a heavy based pot over high heat. Sear the lamb shanks in batches until brown all over, about 5 minutes. Remove lamb onto a plate and drain excess fat from the pot.
- Turn the heat down to medium low. Heat remaining 1 tbsp of olive oil in the same pot. Add the onion, carrot, celery and garlic. Sauté for 10 minutes until the onion is translucent.
- Add the red wine and turn up the heat to medium high. Bring it to a simmer, scraping the bottom of the pan to mix all the brown bits into the wine. Simmer for 3 minutes to evaporate the alcohol a bit.
- Add the remaining ingredients (including remaining 1 tsp salt and pepper) and stir to combine.
- Place the lamb shanks into the pot.
- Bring back up to simmer, cover, then transfer to the oven for 2 hours. (about 1 hour in you can scrape down all the yummy goodness that is sticking to the inside of the pot)
- Turn the lamb shanks, cover, then return to the oven for another 30 minutes or more if needed. The lamb should be very tender, the exposed surface above the liquid should be browned and the sauce should be reduced down to about 1/2 of the original amount. (so cooking about 2½-3 hours in total)
- Carefully transfer the lamb to a serving plate and pick out the thyme sprigs and bay leaves.
- Optional: Use a stick blender to puree the sauce to make it smooth and thick. If your veggies are cut fine enough you won’t need to do this step
- Adjust salt and pepper to taste.
Serve the lamb shanks on mashed potato, polenta or cauliflower puree with lots of sauce!
LEFTOVERS: Remove meat from bone and shred the lamb. Add a jar of Due Cellucci traditional sauce to the leftover lamb and sauce. Heat and serve over your favorite pasta.
