main · Cooking course

Serves 4

Ingredients

• Lamb — 1 kg
• Garlic — 2 cloves
• Carrot — 1 pc
• Onion — 1 pc
• Celery — 2 stalks
• Tomato paste — 10 g
• Thyme — 2 sprigs
• Bay leaf — 1 pc
• Salt
• White pepper
• Water

Beans

• White beans — 500 g
• Onion — 125 g
• Olive oil (for frying) — 50 ml
• Garlic — 3 cloves
• Thyme — 2 sprigs
• Pork sausages — 200 g
• Bread crumbs
• Salt
• White pepper
• Water

Pick the working-muscle cuts of lamb — they emerge perfectly after 1.5 hours of slow cooking and carry the strongest flavour.

Instructions

1. Soak the beans for 8–12 hours.
2. Butcher the lamb. Trim only the large sinews; small ones will dissolve. Cut the meat into pieces roughly the size of a matchbox or larger.
3. Take a large pot — thin-walled so it can also sit in the oven. Or pot + roasting dish. Pour in oil and sear the lamb in batches in a single layer to a deep crust, on high heat. As each batch finishes, drain on a sieve.
4. Make a mirepoix. Finely chop onion, carrot, celery. Sauté in the lamb fat left in the pot.
5. Crush 2 garlic cloves, chop lightly, add to the vegetables. Add thyme and bay leaf; stir.
6. Return the meat to the pot; stir.
7. Top up with water or white wine — nearly covering the meat.
8. Add tomato paste; stir.
9. Salt, pepper well, and bring to a boil. Here you can switch to a roasting dish — depressurise the pot, preheat the dish.
10. Seal with foil with a couple of vent holes, or use an oven-safe lid.
11. Roast at 180 °C for 2–2.5 hours.

Beans

1. In a large pot, pour oil and add sliced onion; sweat lightly.
2. Crush the garlic cloves, chop roughly, add to the pot.
3. Add thyme.
4. Add the beans and stir.
5. Add a ladle of water; simmer … 3 hours?

Lamb

1. After 2.5 hours, take out the lamb. Taste; adjust salt for both the meat and beans. Same with pepper.
2. Cut the sausages into large pieces. Casings on, if they really are small sausages, not a whole one. Add to the lamb; stir. Finish them together on the stove or in the oven, briefly.
3. If the sauce hasn’t tightened, add breadcrumbs and stir.

Serving

Plate side-by-side, roughly half-and-half.