Vince’s lamb mosaic with pesto…

Celebrity butcher Vince Garreffa’s recipe book, The Flesh In My Life is packed with tales about his early life, and is available for sale from Mondos Butchers, 824 Beaufort Street, Inglewood, The Good Store in Victoria Park and Boffins Bookshops.

The more than 200-page book focuses on Vince’s Calabrian heritage and his arrival from Italy to Western Australia as a five-year-old in the 1950s and the experiences that shaped his life.

This is one of the recipes from the book.

Lamb Mosaic with pesto

Banjo lamb blade is an English cut of meat and is boneless which makes it easy to serve. The flavours are made for each other with a little bit of fat and the happy chew of lamb shoulder meat. The only struggle is ensuring there is enough for everyone to have seconds.

Ingredients – Serves 2

  • 1 x boneless lamb banjo blade (500 gram)

Pesto Marinade

  • 100gram basil
  • 20gram pine nuts
  • 100ml olive oil
  • 40gram parmesan cheese
  • 25gram garlic
  • WA Lake Salt
  • Freshly ground black pepper

 

Blend the marinade ingredients in a blender for two minutes until they form a paste.

Turn the lamb fat side up and cut deep incisions (about 1cm deep) in a criss-cross fashion to create 2cm squares. The lamb blade should now look like a checkerboard or mosaic pieces.

Salt and pepper the lamb blade and then marinade it with the pesto paste, working it into the incisions.

Refrigerate and allow the blade to marinade in the pesto paste for a minimum of two hours and a maximum of 24 hours before cooking.

Remove from the fridge an hour before cooking and rest on a baking tray.

Bake at 225°C for 45 minutes and then rest for 15 minutes in a warm place.

Serve in pieces with your favourite mash potato, or roasted vegetables and a salad. A perfect lamb dish for Australia Day!

Buon Appetito!