Lamb Stew (Aggrassato)

Difficulty level 3

Serves 4

Introduction

‘AGNEDDU AGGRASSATU’ The Lamb stew is cooked all around Italy, especially during Easter, in several versions.
We introduce in this page a Sicilian recipe of Lamb Stew, named Lamb ‘Aggrassato’ or ‘Agglassato’, which stands for ‘Glazed’. Its name derives from the exquisite glaze produced by the potatoes which, while cooking, create a savoury cream, that mixed with the other aromas, covers the tender pieces of meat.
This is a very ancient recipe, that a long time ago was one of the most common meals for the leisure class; the poorest families would instead amend the recipe by increasing the amount of potatoes and decreasing the number of meat pieces…

Ingredients

1,2 Kg of lamb (in small pieces); 800 gr of potatoes, 1 onion; 50 gr of grated pecorino (sheep’s milk cheese); 100 gr of caciocavallo (typical cow’s milk cheese) or young pecorino (sheep’s milk cheese); a couple of lemons; 2 garlic cloves; 1 nosegay of parsley; ½ glass of red wine; 5 glasses of extra virgin olive oil; salt and pepper.

Preparation

Wash the pieces of lamb in water and lemon juice and dry them accurately.
Fry the onion, cut in small slices, in a pan, together with the ground garlic and 5 spoons of extra virgin olive oil. A couple of minutes later add the pieces of lamb, and as soon as these become golden coloured, swim with red wine until reduced.
Then cover with warm water, add parsley, salt and pepper and cook for approximately 1 hour.
Add the potatoes (already peeled and chopped) and continue cooking for about 40 minutes.
A couple of minutes before switching off the gas add the grated pecorino cheese and the pieces of caciocavallo cheese.

Wine pairings: Ideal matching with a Cersauolo di Vittoria as the one from Planeta or from Azienda Agricola COS.