Roast Leg Of Lamb With Almond-Mint Pesto

• 1 boned leg of American lamb (5 to 6 lbs.)
• Kosher salt and pepper
• About 1 3/4 cups extra-virgin olive oil, divided
• 7 cups loosely packed fresh mint leaves (from about 3 large bunches)
• 1 1/2 cups toasted sliced almonds
• 1/3 cup lemon zest (from 4 to 5 lemons)
• About 2 tbsp. lemon juice
• 1 1/2 teaspoons red chile flakes

1. Remove twine from lamb and trim off all but a thin layer of fat. Pat dry, season generously with salt and pepper, and rub with 1 tbsp. oil. Unfold roast and season inside the same way. Chill 1 to 2 days.
2. Blanch mint 3 to 4 seconds in a pot of boiling water (this will help keep leaves bright). Drain immediately, rinse with cold water, and gently roll in paper towels to dry.
3. Put mint, almonds, 1/3 cup oil, the lemon zest and 2 tbsp. juice, the chile flakes, 1 tbsp. salt, and 1 1/2 tsp. pepper in a food processor and pulse into a coarse paste.
4. Take lamb out of refrigerator about 1 hour before cooking. Spread about a third of paste over inside of lamb, leaving a 1/2-in. border. To remaining paste, add 1 cup oil; season with salt, pepper, and more lemon juice. Set aside.
5. Roll up lamb and tie it at 1-in. intervals with kitchen twine.
6. Preheat oven to 450u0b0. Heat a large cast-iron frying pan over medium-high heat. Swirl in 1 tbsp. oil and brown lamb all over, 5 to 8 minutes. Slide pan of lamb into oven and turn heat down to 250u0b0.
7. Roast lamb, basting every half-hour with pan drippings and turning over halfway through, until it registers 135u0b0 at thickest part for medium-rare, 1 to 1 3/4 hours.
8. Let roast rest 20 minutes. Remove twine. Slice across the grain and serve with sauce.

lamb, kosher salt, extravirgin olive oil, mint, almonds, lemon zest, lemon juice, red chile flakes

Taken from www.myrecipes.com/recipe/roast-leg-lamb (may not work)