Roast Rack of Lamb is certainly one of the most classic Italian meat recipes and for sure in Italy is a Easter traditional dish.
Fortunately you don’t have to wait for Easter lunch to eat this delicious Italian dish. In fact you can have it whenever you want especially on Sunday lunch with family or friends.
The Rack of Lamb is the part of the lamb that includes the ribs and the loin. This meat is very tender and after cooking it remains soft and pink.
We’re going to show you how to roast a rack of lamb and how to serve it with a side of potatoes according to Italian tradition. Obviously, you can accompany this meat with other seasonal vegetables to your liking.
A perfect side dish for Lamb meat is roman style artichokes, for example.
Marinate the Meat
The recipe for Roasted Rack of Lamb is a perfect dish for those who love tender and aromatic meat. We recommend to marinate this meat with oil, salt, pepper, garlic and plenty of rosemary for at least 1 hour before cooking. Even better, you can marinate it the day before, letting it in the refrigerator.
During cooking, rosemary and garlic release incredible aromas and the lamb soft meat, accompanied by crispy potatoes, will be a perfect dish.
Whether it’s for Easter lunch with the family or for dinner with friends, Roast Rack of Lamb with potatoes will surely be a great success!
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Roast Rack Of Lamb Recipe with Potatoes
- Prep Time: 15 Min + marinade time
- Cook Time: 45 Min
- Yields : 4
Ingredients
- 1 kg (2.2 lb) of rack of lamb
- 4/5 sprigs of rosemary
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 6 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
- 500 g (1,1 lb) of potatoes
- fine salt
- freshly ground black pepper
How to Make Roast Rack Of Lamb With Potatoes form Scratch
Step 1) – First of all, clean the rack of lamb by removing the very fatty parts of the meat and any residual rind. then divide the ribs between them. If your butcher has not already done so, cut to the beginning of the loin and try to uncover the bones as much as possible by pushing the meat down.
Step 2) – If you want now you can cover the bones of the ribs with aluminum foil. This will prevent the bones from burning during cooking. Then in a baking pan pour 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil and lay the meat on top.
Step 3) – Season with plenty of rosemary, peeled garlic cloves cut in half, a pinch of fine salt to taste, ground black pepper and the other 3 tbs of extra virgin olive oil.
Step 4) – Cover with aluminum foil and leave to marinate for at least 1 hour. This preparation can be done even the day before, keeping the marinade in the fridge.
Step 5) – Meanwhile peel the potatoes and cut them into quite big pieces. Boil the potatoes in salted water for about 5 minutes and then drain them.
Step 6) – After marinating, take the pan with the meat and arrange the potatoes around it, add a little more of fine salt and ground black pepper to taste, especially on potatoes.
Step 7) – Bake for 30 minutes at 190 °C (370 F) for a medium cooking of the meat.
Step 8) – After 30 minutes, remove the rack of lamb from the pan and set it aside. Lamb loin meat should not overcook and should remain pink and juicy inside. Finish cooking the potatoes for another 5 minutes at 250°C (480 F) so they will become golden and crispy. Cut the rack of lamb between one rib and the other. Arrange them on a dish with some potatoes and serve.
Storage
We recommend that you enjoy Roast Rack of Lamb fresh from the oven. If you have any leftover, you can store it in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to 1 day. We do not recommend freezing once cooked. While you can safely freeze it raw and keep it in the freezer in an airtight container for a couple of months.
How to Roast Perfectly a Rack Of Lamb in the Oven
When cooking delicate meats such as lamb, the degree of cooking is very important. Also the times indicated in the recipes are indicative. They depend on the size of the piece of meat and personal tastes.
So if you don’t have much experience and you want to be sure and more relaxed, we recommend a very useful tool: a thermometer for meat.
Only by measuring the core temperature of the meat you can obtain an optimal degree of cooking.
So follow this: for rare cooking the temperature must be 55°C (130 F), for medium-rare cooking 60°C (140F) and for a well cooked meat 70°C (160 F). The cooking that we indicated in the recipe is medium, that is, very pink in the center.
Lamb Recipes in Italian Cuisine
Lamb recipes are all very ancient and typical of the Italian regions with a past dedicated to sheep farming.
We find them mainly in the Apennines and on the islands. Most lamb recipes are very simple. Lamb was considered a delicacy by shepherds and was eaten in the past exclusively on feast days.
Traditionally, garlic, rosemary and sage are used a lot in the preparation of recipes with lamb. Some regional variations use more particular aromas such as juniper, oregano, or mint. In the tradition of Italian cuisine there is a great variety of lamb recipes especially in Abruzzo, Sardinia, Lazio and Campania.
Lamb meat lends itself to many types of cooking with the exception of boiling which is not suitable for this type of meat.
On warm spring days the best way to savor this tender meat is on the grill: if you have a barbecue you will not be able to cook your lamb in any other way!
With the lamb you can also prepare delicious ragù to season pasta or to fill delicious lasagna. However, the best known traditional Italian recipes are baked lamb with potatoes, stuffed leg of lamb, fried cutlets and lamb stewed with tomato passata.
