Name: Abbacchio al forno con patate
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 451 min
Total time: 60 min
Ingredients: 1 kilo baby lamb or should lamb chops (cut into serving pieces); 1-2 cloves garlic (finely minced); 1 sprig of fresh rosemary (just the leaves, minced); salt and pepper; olive oil; 1 kilo yellow potatoes (peeled and cut into wedges); 2-3 cloves garlic (minced); 2-3 sprigs of fresh rosemary (left whole); salt and pepper; olive oil; white wine

Abbacchio al forno con patate, or Oven Roased Lamb and Potatoes, is the quintessential Easter main course in Rome. It’s utterly simple to make but delicious.

Rather like the oven roasted chicken and potato dish we featured some time back, you simply cut up baby lamb and potatoes, then toss them with garlic, rosemary, olive oil and salt and pepper. Laid on a baking dish or sheet and drizzled with a bit of white wine, it all goes into a moderate oven for 45 minutes to an hour. If you have the time, it’s a nice idea to marinate the lamb overnight, as it enhances the flavor and tenderizes the meat, but that’s totally optional.

The only real challenge to reproducing this Roman classic is finding the abbacchio or baby lamb. It’s basically impossible where I live now, and indeed difficult to find even in outside central Italy. I make do with bone in shoulder chops cut into serving pieces, which at least appropriates the mouth feel if not the sweet delicate taste of the original.

Even with that substitution, I love abbachio al forno con patate. It’s a great choice for Easter dinner if you’re serving a smaller group, as you can scale it up or down for the number of guests. But it’s a fine choice for lamb lovers any time you feel like something toothsome you call pull off with minimal effort.

Ingredients

Serves 4-6

1 kilo (2 lbs) baby lamb, or shoulder blade chops, cut into serving pieces

For marinating the lamb:

1-2 cloves of garlic, finely minced
1 sprig of fresh rosemary, just the leaves, minced
salt and pepper
olive oil

For roasting:

1 kilo (2 lbs) yellow potatoes, peeled and cut into wedges
2-3 cloves of garlic minced
2-3 sprigs of fresh rosemary, left whole
salt and pepper
olive oil
white wine

Directions

Cut the lamb into serving pieces and place in a mixing bowl.

Marinate the lamb

Add the garlic, rosemary, salt, pepper and a small drizzle of olive oil. Mix everything together so the lamb pieces are well coated with the marinade.

Cover the foil with plastic wrap (cling film) or transfer the lamb and its marinade to a well sealed plastic bag. Leave to marinate at least an hour or, even better, overnight. Refrigerate if marinating for more than an hour or two.

Roast

In a large mixing bowl, mix the potato wedges with the garlic, salt, pepper and a good glug of olive oil. Do be generous with the seasonings.

Now lay on the seasoned potato wedges on a baking pan or sheet, then nestle the lamb pieces among the wedges. Place the rosemary springs on top.

Drizzle a bit of white wine over everything.

Place the baking dish in a pre-heated moderate (180C/350F) oven for 45 minutes to an hour, or until the lamb is cooked through and the potatoes are perfectly tender. Both should be lightly brown, as pictured, and most but not quite all of the cooking juices should have evaporated.

Turn the lamb and potatoes once or twice during the roasting so they brown evenly.

Rest and serve

Remove the baking dish from the oven and let it rest for about 10-15 minutes before serving.

Abbacchio al forno con patate (Oven Roasted Lamb and Potatoes)

Notes on abbacchio al forno con patate

As mentioned, the marination is optional. If you don’t have the time, you can start by cutting up the lamb and potatoes, then tossing them together with the seasonings.

If the meat exudes a lot of liquid in the oven, as it sometimes does, you can raise the oven heat to 200C/400F for the last 15-20 minutes or so. And let it go a bit longer if need be.

If on the other hand, your oven runs a bit hot and you find the lamb browning too quickly, you can cover it in aluminum foil for the first half hour or so, then uncover so its browns.

The rest is quite important as it lets the dish compose and the potatoes soak up those delicious cooking juices. Many people (including me!) find those savroy potatoes are the best part of the dish. When I’m serving a full on Itaian style meal, I just remove the baking dish from the oven and serve the primo while this secondo rests.

Choosing the Lamb

As mentioned at the top, in Rome abbacchio al forno con patate is traditinoally made with baby lamb no more than 40 days old. These lambs are so small that a whole lamb can be cut up like a chicken. Even the youngest spring lamb you can find here in North America is at least 3-5 months old, and most lamg is older than that, grown too big for that treatment.

I find the best cut for oven roasting is the shoulder. It has enough marbling to stand up to a fairly long roast without drying out. And I especially like bone in shoulder blade chops. Not only is the meat tasty, but the bone in pieces remind me (vaguely) of abbacchio. You should cut it along the muscle separation in the middle of the chop, then cut each resulting half crosswise. You’ll need a sturdy cleaver to cut the bone. If you don’t have one, then just leave the halves as is.

Boneless lamb shoulder, though less tasty, is another option for those who don’t like bone in meat. I’ve even made this dish with boneless leg of lamb, cut into bite sized pieces. But in all honesty I find it a bit lacking in character.

Choosing the Potatoes

For the potatoes, you want a variety with waxy yellow flesh that won’t fall apart during its hour long stay in the oven. In North America, Yukon Golds are an ideal choice. It procuces a very different effect, but you could also use baby potatoes or fingerlings, left unpeeled.

If you’re working with any other kind of potato, you could do what some recipes call for and hold the potatoes back for the first half hour or so of roasting. Some recipes even have you parboil the potatoes then add them only for the final few minutes to brown up.

Variations

If you like, the recipe works well with thinly sliced onion instead of the garlic. Angelina used to like to add freshly grated pecorino (just a litlte bit, not enough to make it cheesy) along with parsley. And scatter some cherry or canned tomatoes in the baking dish.

And speaking of herbs, you could add a few bay leaves or fresh sage as well as the rosemary.

Making abbacchio al forno con patate ahead

You can prep and assemble the dish a hour or two ahead, then roast it about an hour or so before you want to eat. The dish can rest up to a half hour as well out of the oven. If you really have to, you can make the dish entirely ahead and re-heat it very gently in the oven when you’re ready to eat. The dish will be perfectly edible but the taste and texture of the meat, I find, suffer.

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