Italians have long raised goats and sheep, both for their milk, which was a staple food of the Romans and still plays a vital role today, especially in the form of cheeses, and for their meat, which is a fixture on the table during spring, and especially for Easter.
These beef and lamb spiedini gain a vaguely middle-Eastern feel from the herbs used to season them, and are quite refreshing in summer, thanks to a cool yogurt sauce. As you might guess, the recipe is a modern Italian recipe.
Lamb is one of the hallmarks of spring in Italy, and though the most common way to prepare the chops is scottadito -- on the grill -- there are other options, and this lamb in red wine sauce is quite pleasant.
A dish that is alla cacciatore is generally cooked with herbs and vinegar (chicken cacciatore, with its tomato, is an exception). In this Umbrian recipe, rather than vinegar, we have white wine.
Lamb is intimately associated with Passover: Moses ordered his people to kill white lambs paint the doorways with its blood, and roast it and eat it with pane azzimo, unleavened bread, on the 14th day of the first month of Spring. Hence, I might add, the Italian tradition of lamb at Easter, and this is a Roman Jewish recipe.
Mint is one of the standard accompaniments to lamb, and it gets some unusual (by Italian standards) help in this modern Italian grilled lamb chop recipe.
Artichokes and lamb go hand-in-hand, with the bitterness of the former nicely balancing the richness of the latter, and come spring the markets are full of both.
There are many recipes for things alla cacciatora, which (in this use) refers to a seasoning mix containing garlic, rosemary, and (usually) vinegar. In this recipe from Trentino Alto Adige we have lemon juice instead. Though the recipe calls for kid, you could also use lamb.
It's difficult to overstate the importance of shepherding in the Sardinian economy, even now that the island is a magnet for tourists who flock to the coastal towns -- inland it's just as dry and barren as it ever was, and the animals that thrive best are sheep. Hence Sardinia's renowned pecorino cheese (they make both pecorino sardo and the saltier pecorino romano), Sardinian wool (my father collected Sardinian rugs), and -- of course -- lamb. Here we have a leg, stuffed.
This is an old, and very simple recipe from the Abruzzo, and also quite delicate; fennel adds a delightful hint of anise freshness to the dish, while the olives also contribute.
My mother-in-law usually roasts lamb (well done, which is what Italians like, and if you don't like rare lamb, I suggest you try it because I much prefer it the Italian way), but my father-in-law had a hankering for what his Mom used to do, so Graziella stewed it instead. The recipe is very much oral, in the tradition of home recipes, and quantities are rather approximate.
Stuart Borken is a doctor by training, but a cook by passion, and has shared some wonderful recipes with us over the years . This is his take on scottadito, or grilled lamb chops, which he serves with a refreshingly minty yogurt sauce.
Friuli Venezia Giulia is in many ways distinct from the rest of Italy: tomato is much less popular, and one encounters cinnamon and other spices that are perhaps more common in Mittel-European cooking. The region was, after all, long an Austro-Hungarian province.
The Abruzzo is a wild land, and in the past much of the inland population depended upon their flocks of sheep for survival. This is a modern, more elaborate Abruzzese stewed lamb with onions.
Lamb stew is a natural, and there are many variations. This particular lamb stew is from Puglia.
Coratella is the heart, lungs, and liver of a young lamb, and if you buy them in an Italian supermarket, the organs are generally still attached together. The cut is an extremely traditional holdover from the days when the majority of people were too poor to be able to afford richer cuts such as chops or a leg of lamb, and though it's still quite cheap, you'll now find it in elegant restaurants too.
There are a number of variations on Calabrian lamb chops, which seem to have bell pepper as a common thread. Carlo Midione gives a version with artichokes in his The Food of Southern Italy, while this version instead adds green olives.
Agnello Scottadito, which translates as finger-burning lamb, gets its name from the fact that the chops are so tasty people can't wait for them to cool, and thus burn their fingers. It can happen. Chef Alessio Pesucci, of the Locanda il Gallo in Chiocchio, a town about 15 miles outside Florence, serves his alla Diavola, with a hot sauce that adds a very nice touch.
Agnello Scottadito, which translates as finger-burning lamb, gats its name from the fact that the chops are so tasty people can't wait for them to cool, and thus burn their fingers. It can happen. Chef Alessio Pesucci, of the Locanda il Gallo in Chiocchio, a town about 15 miles outside Florence, serves his alla Diavola, with a hot sauce that adds a very nice touch.
Kid Gambellara Style, or Cavreto de Gambellara: According to Amadeo Sandri, Gambellara is known for two things: Its wines, and stewed kid, which is marinated, shaped into a ring, put whole in a large copper pot, slowly cooked atop a wood-fired stove. The result is nicely browned, but also extraordinarily tender. Mr. Sandri instead prefers to spit roast his kid, burning hardwood to obtain the coals that supply the heat.
This combination of orange and lamb is a little unusual, but will be quite tasty. A word on the cooking time: Italians don't like rare lamb, as a rule, and even if you think you do you like your lamb rare, try cooking this for the full time suggested. You may decide you prefer your lamb better cooked.
A tasty, unusual lamb stew that from the Veneto that wll be very nice in early spring, when Asparagus is especially flavorful.
Lamb Chops Stuffed With Artichokes, or Costolette Farcite ai Carciofi: A simple lamb chop can be very satisfying, and indeed grilled lamb chops are called scottadito, finger-burning, in Italy because they're so good that people burn their fingertips in their haste to gobble them up. Lamb chops can be just as good fried, especially if they're stuffed too.
Roman-Style Lamb, or Abbacchio alla Romana: This is one of the quintessential spring dishes in the Capital of Italy, and well worth getting excited over. Don't let the presence of anchovies throw you; they serve primarily as salt and will blend into the flavors of the dish quite well, balancing the richness of the lamb.
Lamb with Horseradish Sauce, or Agnello con Salsa di Rafano: Rafano is horseradish, and it will do as fine a job of cutting through the richness of lamb as does the mint jelly commonly used in the Anglo-Saxon world. This recipe is from Piemonte and will serve 6.
Lamb with Button Onions, or Agnello con le Cipolline: A tasty recipe from Basilicata.
Lamb Stew with Potatoes, or Abbacchio in Spezzatino con Patate: Easter is traditionally the time for lamb. If you're planning to serve it, but haven't yet decided how, Ada Boni is an excellent person to turn to. This is actually more of a comfort food than something one might want to serve up for Easter dinner, but it is very good.
Leg of Lamb with Herbs, or Cosciotto di Agnello alle Erbe: Easter is traditionally the time for lamb. If you're planning to serve it, but haven't yet decided how, this is quite nice; the mustard and herbs do an excellent job of balancing lamb's richness.
Lamb Catanzaro Style, or Avunu a Catanzarisi: Calabrian recipes tend to be zesty; the richness of the meat is nicely balanced by the sharpness of the capers and anchovies, which will provide flavor and balance but not overshadow (encouragement for those wary of anchovies).
Kid Neretese Style, or Capra alla Neretese: Kid, stewed with onions, hot, and regular peppers, is a specialty of the town of Nereto, near Teramo, in Abruzzi. The recipe will also work with lamb.
Lamb with Mint, or Agnello alla Menta: Lamb with mint jelly was one of my grandmother's standard dishes, and very good it was. She was from Vermont, and I haven't ever come across mint jelly in Italy. However, people do combine mint and lamb here too; this particular recipe is from the Abruzzo.
Lamb with Bell Peppers, or Agnello coi Peperoni: Though one perhaps thinks of potatoes in conjunction with stewing, they're not requirements, and indeed this stew with bell peppers is a very nice variation. The recipe is from the Abruzzo.
Lamb with Olives, or Agnello alle Olive: Lamb and olives are a fine combination, the bitterness of the olives nicely balancing the richness of the lamb to make a whole that's greater than the parts. This recipe is from the Abruzzo.
Lamb, Farmer's Style, or Agnello alla Contadina: Lamb stew is tremendously satisfying, and there are a great many variations on the theme. This particular recipe is from the Abruzzo.
Spicy Lamb, or Agnello all'Arrabbiata: Though the word arrabbiata means angry in general use, in cooking it usually means that the dish contains hot pepper. This particular recipe is from the Abruzzo.
A quick, easy Calabrian recipe.
Lamb with Artichokes, or Agnello coi Carciofi: This recipe is from the Marche; Leonardo Bruni notes that artichokes were once typical of Jewish cooking but were adopted by gentiles as well, and now the region has huge fields of artichokes to meet local demand.
Lamb alla Cacciatora, or Abbacchio alla Cacciatora: This is a classic Roman recipe.
Lamb with Saffron, or Agnello allo Zafferano: Easter dinner wouldn't seem quite right without lamb in Italy. Much is roasted, but some people like to stew it instead; this is a Sardinian recipe that gains grace from a little saffron. To serve 6:
Roast Lamb, or L'Agnidde o' Furne: This is very simple, but very good, and is one of the classic elements of a Christmas Day meal in Altamura, a town in northwestern Puglia.
Spit-Roasted Kid, or Capretto allo Spiedo: If you drive out into the country in almost any part of Italy, you'll find flocks of sheep or goats. They provide milk, and wool, and also meat. This recipe is from Basilicata.
Calabrian Grilled Kid, or Capretto alla Griglia: A simple, tasty recipe from Calabria.
Agnello con le Olive Nere -- -- Lamb with Black Olives
Lamb Chops Scottadito: Lamb Chops Scottadito: Scottadito means finger-blistering, and with these lamb chops it's a serious risk: They're so good you'll not want to wait for them to cool. The recipe is courtesy of Ivana, and I enjoyed it at a delightful meal in Valpolicella, not far from Verona.
Grilled Lamb Chops, or Agnello Scottadito: The territory inland in the Marche is quite rugged, and as a result farming the land was difficult and in many areas extremely so. Consequently, people turned to shepherding, and it played a major role in the inland economy until well into this century. With large flocks of sheep grazing the land, lamb was a plentiful and commonly used meat, and even though the flocks are no longer as plentiful as they were, lamb is still popular in the region.
Lamb with Eggs and Cheese: This recipe is from the Abruzzo region. Lamb is the signature meat of the region; the custom of adding eggs and cheese to what would in any case be a hearty dish derives from the belief that lamb "thins out," as it were, in the cooking. Hence the need to bolster it, and the recipe continues to be a great favorite despite the more recent trend towards lighter dishes.
Triped Lamb: Despite the name there's no tripe involved here. Simply that the lamb is stewed as one might stew tripe, with lemon and eggs to balance its richness.
Abbacchio Brodettato: This is a Roman dish; the egg-and-lemon combination in the sauce is quite similar to what one finds in either Jewish Italian dishes or Greek dishes, so this dish could be quite old. In introducing it in La Cucina Romana e Del Lazio, Mr. Jannattoni says...
Abbacchio al Forno alla Maniera di Rocca Priora:
According to Edda Servi Machlin, though kid and lamb may look similar, kid is much tenderer and more delicate than lamb; she therefore cautions you to get a small spring lamb if you choose to use lamb. This is, incidentally, the sort of lamb you would most likely find were you in Italy -- the lambs that appear in the markets tend to be fairly small.
Kid (or lamb) stewed with cheese, eggs, and peas, is one of the standard Neapolitan Easter dishes.
Many years ago I had the good fortune to be in Sardegna for Easter. The highpoint of Easter dinner was a roast kid with herbs that the cook set near, not over a bed of coals at about 9 in the morning. Very slowly over the next three hours she moved it over but not that much closer to the coals, occasionally turning it; she explained that this slow-cooking would make it very tender. It certainly did.
An intriguing mixture of roasting and stewing for this kid or lamb, from Calabria.
Though some people object to goat, I enjoy its flavor, and it becomes extraordinarily tender as it simmers. In this case, with tomatoes, fennel and more. If you do not have goat, lamb will work well too.
A rich, sensuous lamb dish from New York's Al Fresco Restaurant. From my review of their book.
Lamb Chops Calabrian style, an excellent recipe from my review of Carlo Middione's The Food of Southern Italy.
"This is my romanticized version of a traditional Sicilian braised lamb dish," says Erica De Mane.
A breadcrumb-based herby filling that looks quite nice.
Lamb works very well on the grill, especially if cut into pieces and cookes on skewers -- spiedini in Italian -- with other vegetables between the pieces of meat. Accompany it with a grilled eggplant salad and some grilled fruit for dessert, and who could ask for more?
A tasty and unusual way of preparing lamb.
