Month: August 2012

Heat a large sauce pan (or Dutch oven) with the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the lamb with a liberal pinch of salt and cook until brown, about 4 minutes.

Meanwhile, either chop or combine the carrots, celery and onions in a food processor and pulse to chop finely. You want all the veggies to be uniform size.

Remove the browned lamb from the pan and set aside. Add the vegetables to the same pan with a large pinch of salt and sweat until translucent and aromatic, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the garlic and sweat 1 minute more. De-glaze the pan with the red wine (meaning just pour it in), scraping the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon to get all the goodies into the sauce.

Bring to a simmer and cook until reduced by about half. Then add the tomatoes, sprigs of rosemary, pinch of sugar and red pepper flakes, and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the lamb back into the pan and let simmer 20 to 30 minutes longer.

While the sauce is simmering, bring one or two pots (depending if you’re making regular noodles, g-free noodles or both like in our house) of salted water to a boil.

When you have 10 minutes left for the sauce, drop the pasta into the boiling water and give a stir so it doesn’t stick. When the pasta is cooked al dente, remove and set aside ½ cup of the pasta water, and then drain the pasta. Stir the pasta into the sauce to coat the noodles. Add the reserved pasta water, Parmesan, butter, olive oil and basil and continue to mix. Once the butter is melted and everything is incorporated, remove from the heat and serve immediately.