Looking for a little something different to perk up pasta night? This slightly more exotic recipe is perfect for fall and combines your favourite ingredients with a little Mediterranean flare. Serve over noodles, spaghetti squash or our Lemon and Fennel Risotto! Serves 10-12.
¼ cup/60 ml olive oil
2 large onions, finely chopped
2 large fennel bulbs, finely chopped
10 large cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 tbsp/30 ml grapeseed oil
2 lbs/1 kg ground lamb
salt & pepper to taste
2 5.5 fl oz/156 ml cans tomato paste
2 28 fl oz/796 ml cans diced tomatoes
1 28 fl oz/796 ml can ground tomatoes
6 cinnamon sticks, whole
1 lb/2 cups/500g/½ litre sun-dried Kalamata olives*, rinsed, pitted and coarsely chopped
2 tsp/10ml Boyajian Orange Oil** or grated zest of 4 large oranges***
More salt & pepper
Fennel fronds, finely chopped, to garnish
Heat the oil in a very large pan (6 litres or bigger) +. Add the fennel and onions and sweat (over medium heat) until softened (about 10 minutes). Add the garlic and sweat another five minutes.
In a separate pan, heat the grapeseed oil over medium-high heat. Add the lamb, along with the salt and pepper, and sauté until browned. Turn the heat to medium and add the tomato paste. Roast it until it turns a more brownish red, stirring constantly so as not to burn (about 5 minutes).Pour in one of the cans of diced tomatoes and stir to deglaze the bottom of this pan.
Pour lamb mixture into the onion mixture and add the remaining cans of diced and ground tomatoes, along with the cinnamon sticks and olives. Allow the sauce to come to a bubble, cover and turn heat to very low. Simmer for at least 3 hours.
Remove cinnamon sticks and stir in the orange oil. Add salt and pepper to taste (be sure to taste it first to judge on the salt). Garnish with the chopped fennel fronds.
Notes:
* You can easily find these olives in your grocer’s deli section. They’re easier to pit than regular Kalamatas, and I like them better. They’re quite salty, though; hence the rinsing.
** I had the absolutely magical fortune to find Boyajian Orange Oil one day at The Cookbook Company Cooks in Calgary. You should be able to find it at other specialty food stores, or check out http://www.boyajianinc.com/citrus.html to order on-line (and check out their huge assortment of other scrumptious-sounding products). While its recommended use is for baking, its depth and intensity make it absolutely perfect for finishing sauces and soups and to add to vinaigrettes (not recommended for sautéing). Look for other recipes featuring this product, soon at FAB!
*** Alternatively, you can use grated orange zest (use a rasp, if you’ve got one), but be sure to add at the very end of the cooking process!
+Or, by all means, you can always halve the recipe….
Enjoy!!
~ One of Seven
