Greater Harrisburg's Community Magazine

An Easter Feast: This holiday, sideline the pork and give traditional roast lamb a try.

Screenshot 2015-03-30 01.34.45Easter is a very important holiday in Italian families, its traditions sometimes even surpassing those of Christmas. “Pasqua” arrives along with spring, bringing with it happiness and hope for new beginnings.

I remember my childhood Easters vividly. Holy Week was a time of faith and reflection for us with lots of time spent in church for Holy Thursday and Good Friday. There were the expected trips to Pealer’s Flower Shop for Easter lilies and hyacinths and hot cross buns from the market. The long-awaited Easter candy was always purchased at Matango’s, a Harrisburg landmark since 1947. The white chocolate was real white chocolate, not the plastic-tasting version I seem to find today. The Easter bunny also left luscious coconut cream eggs (our favorite) and beautifully decorated ones with little windows to look inside.

Our Easter dinners were simple. We followed the Italian tradition of roasting lamb, itself a symbol of this Christian feast. There was always asparagus and scalloped potatoes and, often, pickled eggs, which are not Italian at all. My mother’s desserts were a herald to spring as well: coconut cream or lemon meringue pie and, sometimes, a chocolate pie for my Uncle Ray.

During my own married years, I have occasionally tried to complicate our Easter dinner. I once made a whole ham, wrapping it in strips of puff pastry because it looked so beautiful in a magazine. Then there was the time I devoted an entire day to making the traditional Italian Easter pie—rolling multiple layers of dough into paper thin sheets and layering them with ricotta cheese and spinach. No one ate it.

So, today, I have my own family tradition: a roast lamb studded with garlic and rosemary, asparagus roasted with olive oil, breadcrumbs and Parmesan cheese, and crispy roast potatoes bathed in olive oil and more rosemary. There is always lots of mint jelly to go around, and, if I’m ambitious, I will make some stuffed baked tomatoes.

Roasting lamb is not hard. Here are some steps to get started:

  • Count how many people you will be serving to determine how large a roast to buy. Figure about a half a pound of cooked meat per person.
  • Decide if you want a bone-in roast or a boneless one. I like both. A lot of people think a bone-in roast has more flavor, but boneless is so easy to carve.
  • Check out the farmers’ markets, which carry fresh, local lamb rather than the shrink-wrapped specimen from Australia.
  • Get a good meat thermometer. It helps prevent overcooking (though mint jelly can cover a lot of mistakes).
  • Buy lots of fresh garlic and rosemary.

Now, for cooking times. Trial and error is the best teacher. Ovens vary in temperature consistency; degree of rareness is a personal preference. Generally speaking, for “medium,” roast your lamb to an internal temperature of 160 degrees, about 25 to 30 minutes per pound. It’s a good idea to take the roast out at about 150 degrees, cover it loosely with foil and let it rest for about 15 minutes. The lamb will continue cooking as it rests.

I don’t adhere to a strict recipe for my Easter lamb. But here are the basic steps I follow:

Ingredients

  • 1 whole leg of lamb, either bone-in or boneless (about 7 pounds)
  • At least 12 cloves of fresh garlic, cut into slivers
  • A large bunch of fresh rosemary, split into small sprigs
  • Extra virgin olive oil
  • Good sea salt and freshly ground pepper

Preparing the lamb

  • Take the lamb roast out of the refrigerator at least 30 minutes before putting it in the oven.
  • With a small, sharp knife, cut multiple slits into the meat (about half an inch deep).
  • Insert a slivered garlic piece into each cut in the meat. You can’t have too many!
  • Into some of the cuts, place a sprig of rosemary with the garlic.
  • Brush olive oil over the entire roast and season with salt and pepper.

Place the roast in a pre-heated, 350-degree oven and cook according to the time noted above. Cover the lamb loosely with foil to prevent overbrowning. This can be removed at the end of roasting time if the lamb hasn’t browned enough.

After resting, slice the lamb into small medallions and place on a serving dish. I garnish the platter with lots of fresh mint and additional rosemary. You can skim the fat from the roasting pan and pour the pan juices over the meat.

The aroma of lamb roasting with rosemary and garlic is heavenly. I hope you will give it a try this Easter and not suffer too much from ham separation anxiety!

Just skip the spinach pie. Buona Pasqua!

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