Ham or Lamb for Easter?
Lamb roasted with herbed butter, shaved artichoke salad with wilted arugula and english peas and pea fritters hip up a classic Easter Dinner. Mini mascarpone tarts with prosciutto and asparagus (far background) make for easy and delicious starters.
Baked Ham is the Easter meal of choice in my family. And, while the cooks got better at perfecting a dish that, when I was little, was so awful we were allowed to put peanut butter on it just to get it down, I am still truly reviled by it. Whether is was my Aunt True’s ham baked with canned pineapples and maraschino cherries (bless her soul) or my mom’s dried out over-salted hunk of meat (bless her heart), baked ham was and is a dish that never grew on me.
My fondest Easter memories are less about the food and more about my family. Riding in the car with my mom to Helen’s Bakery in Waterbury, CT to pick up our Easter pastries; coloring easter eggs with my niece and nephew (much closer in age to me than I am to my brothers); the rainy Easter I thought I was crafty and hid an egg in a hole in the fabric underneath the sofa — and forgot about it until a week or so later when the whole house stunk; the hot as anything Easter when my adult brother (term loosely used here ), started an Easter egg fight and all us kids were covered in smashed boiled egg — the look on my mother’s face after that caper was priceless. Over the years, it became logistically difficult to get the family all together to celebrate holiday. We’ve all created new traditions, we look forward to calling and passing the phone around the Easter table and always, without fault, someone brings up the days — before frozen chicken nuggets came in to play — when it was okay for us kids to pair peanut butter and ham!
Mini mascarpone tarts with prosciutto and asparagus.
This year, I’m going with a roasted lamb with an herbed butter crust and a buttery gravy. I’m skipping our traditional Italian “sides” of lasagna and pizza gaina and instead going “light” with an Easter tart of mascarpone, prosciutto (my nod to ham) and asparagus. While roasted potatoes would go perfectly with the lamb, I’m going with a cornmeal based pea fritter just for fun. And, since artichokes are a a springtime favorite, I’m serving them shaved and slightly roasted with wilted arugula and english peas. For dessert? I’ll take an ear off the dark chocolate bunny and a Reese’s Peanut Butter Egg. You’re on your own!!
Easter Sunday Menu
Mini Mascarpone Tarts with Prosciutto and Asparagus (check Wednesday for simple recipe)
Roasted Lamb with an Herbed Butter Crust
Shaved Artichokes with Wilted Arugula and English Peas
Fresh Pea Fritters
Recipe: Roasted Lamb with Herbed Butter Crust
Serves: 6
Ingredients
Herbed butter
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 3 tablespoons chopped fresh tarragon
- 3 tablespoons chopped fresh mint
- 2 teaspoons coarse kosher salt
Lamb
- 1 3-pound boneless leg of lamb, well trimmed
- 1 tablespoon 1-inch thin strips meyer lemon (sweet lime or orange ok)
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- Coarse kosher salt
- 2 cups dry white wine
- 1 1/3 cups low-salt chicken broth
- 2 teaspoons finely grated meyer lemon peel
- Fresh tarragon and mint sprigs to garnish
Prepare herbed butter
Stir butter, tarragon and 2 teaspoons coarse salt in medium bowl until well blended.
Prepare lamb
Using small sharp knife, make 1-inch-deep slits all over lamb. Insert 3 or 4 meyer lemon peel strips into each slit.
Position rack in bottom third of oven and preheat to 450°F. Heat oil in very large skillet over medium-high heat. Sprinkle lamb with coarse salt and pepper. Add lamb to skillet; cook until brown on all sides, about 8 minutes. Transfer to roasting pan. Brush with 3 tablespoons herb butter. Roast lamb 15 minutes. Brush again with 2 tablespoons herb butter.
Reduce temperature to 350°F. Continue to roast lamb until thermometer inserted into thickest part registers 135°F to 140°F for medium-rare, about 45 minutes. Transfer lamb to platter; reserve pan. Tent lamb loosely with foil; let rest 30 minutes.
Spoon fat off any juices in roasting pan. Place pan over 2 burners on high heat. Add wine and broth and bring to boil, whisking to scrape up browned bits. Boil until sauce is reduced to 2 cups, about 5 minutes. Whisk in remaining herb butter and grated meyer lemon peel. Season sauce to taste with coarse salt and pepper.
If you would like to leave a comment but do not see the DISQUS tool, please click on the post headline or here and scroll down to the bottom.
