Easy Lamb Stracotto with Orange and Olives

This lamb stracotto with orange and olives is a delicious Italian pot roast. Just slow cook the lamb to perfection in red wine, the zest and juice of an orange and celery. And then finish it off with some Italian black olives. The richness of the lamb is balanced with the sweetness of the orange, and the savoury olives. And the potatoes and peas make this a filling one pot meal.

Lamb is not the first meat that springs to mind when you think of Italian food. But Italians have farmed lambs on its hilltops for centuries. And Italy’s orange groves produce some of the sweetest oranges in Europe. People have cooked meat with fruit for thousands of years. Cooking with oranges is perhaps most associated with duck. But the strong flavour of lamb worked extremely well with the orange. And I have already had requests to make it again soon.

If you enjoyed this recipe, take a look at some of my other favourite Italian recipes.

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Lamb Stracotto with Orange and Olives

This slow cooked lamb stracotto with orange and olives is a delicious Italian pot roast, blending the distinctive lamb flavours with fruity citrus.

Ingredients

• 2 medium red onions (chopped)
• 2 cloves garlic (chopped)
• 1 tbsp parsely (roughly chopped)
• 2 sticks celery (cut into rough chunks)
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• 750 grams leg of lamb (cut into 1.5cm cubes)
• 1 tbsp honey
• 200 ml red wine
• 400 grams tinned plum tomatoes (crushed)
• ½ tbsp thyme leaves (finely chopped)
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 orange (zested and juiced)
• 200 grams black olives (pitted)
• 4 medium potatoes (peeled and quartered)
• 200 grams frozen peas

Instructions 

• Preheat the oven to 130°C
• Sauté the onions for 4-5 minutes in an oven proof pan until they start to brown, then add garlic, parsley and celery and continue to cook for a further 5 mintues. Stir frequently to avoid sticking.
• Add 1 tbsp of tomato paste and cook for one minute, then add the lamb and cook until the lamb has browned all over. Add the honey and then continue to sauté until the lamb is well coated with the honey.
• Raise the heat and add the wine, and cook until the wine has reduced by half. Then add the tinned tomatoes, herbs, the juice and zest of the orange, and the black olives, then cover the pan and put in the preheated oven for 30-40 minutes.
• Add the potatoes and cook for a further hour or until the meat is just tender. Then add the peas and cook for 10 minutes, then remove from the pan and serve.

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Italian

Keyword: lamb, orange, straccato