Intinglio di Agnello allo Zafferano di Campo di Giove
- 2/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 3 fat cloves garlic, peeled, crushed, and minced
- 2 tablespoons fennel seeds
- 3 pounds lamb, cut from the leg, well-trimmed of its fat and cut into 3-inch chunks
- Fine sea salt
- Freshly cracked pepper
- 1 14-ounce can crushed plum tomatoes, with their juices
- 1 1/2 cups dry white wine
- 1/4 teaspoon saffron threads
- 2 tablespoons warmed white wine
- In a small saucepan, warm 1/3 cup of the olive oil and soften the garlic in it for 2 minutes, without coloring it.
- Add the fennel seeds and permit them to perfume the oil for 1 minute.
- Place the prepared lamb in a large bowl, pour the warm oil over it and rub it well into the flesh of the lamb.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the lamb rest for 1 hour or up to 4 hours, in a cool place but not in the refrigerator.
- In a large saute pan, heat the remaining olive oil and in it brown on all sides the chunks of marinated lamb.
- Cook at one time only those pieces that will fit in the pan without touching.
- Salt and generously pepper the meat.
- As the lamb is browned, remove it to a holding plate.
- Add the tomatoes and wine to the still-warm saute pan, scraping, stirring at the residue and permitting the liquids to reduce for 5 minutes.
- In a small pan, toast the saffron threads lightly over a low flame for 1 minute.
- Dissolve them in the warmed white wine.
- Add the saffroned wine and reduce for another 30 seconds.
- Lower the flame, return the lamb to the saute pan, and bring it to a gentle simmer.
- Cover with a skewed lid and braise the lamb for 1 hour or until the meat is soft.
- Permit 1 hours rest before serving the lamb in shallow bowls with oven-toasted bread, or presenting it as a sauce for polenta (page 43).
- Or use some of its juices as a sauce for pasta before serving the lamb itself as a second course.
extravirgin olive oil, garlic, fennel seeds, lamb, salt, freshly cracked pepper, tomatoes, white wine, saffron threads, white wine
Taken from www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/intinglio-di-agnello-allo-zafferano-di-campo-di-giove-391003 (may not work)