Roast leg of lamb with pancetta, sage & rosemary

Roast leg of lamb with pancetta, sage & rosemary

Serves 8

Cooks In2 hours 5 minutes plus resting

DifficultyNot too tricky

Nutrition per serving

• Calories 250 13%

• Fat 17.6g 25%

• Saturates 6.2g 31%

• Sugars 0.1g 0%

• Salt 1.0g 17%

• Protein 22.4g 45%

• Carbs 0.5g 0%

• Fibre 0.2g -

Of an adult's reference intake

Ingredients

• 1 leg of lamb , (about 2kg)
• 1 handful of fresh sage
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1 handful of fresh rosemary
• 1 lemon
• olive oil
• 85 g higher-welfare smoked pancetta

recipe adapted from

Penguin Anniversary Edition: The Naked Chef

By Jamie Oliver

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 220ºC/425ºF/gas 7.
2. With a knife, follow the lamb bone down about 10–12cm (you are just making a ‘tunnel’ where you are cutting the meat away from the bone). Do this from the top end and the bottom end. Pierce the skin at an angle with a sharp pointed knife 6 or 8 times at random around the leg, then open up the incisions by poking your fingers down them to make a bit of space.
3. Pick the sage leaves and peel and chop the garlic. Pick and roughly chop the rosemary leaves.
4. Using a pestle and mortar, smash up half the sage with the garlic and 1 teaspoon of sea salt. When it’s pulped, squeeze in the lemon juice, add 2 tablespoons of oil, the other half of the sage and the rosemary.
5. Stuff the herb mixture into all the incisions and gaps you have made with the knife.
6. Slice the pancetta, then stuff deep into the gaps along the bone and the incisions. This gives a lovely fragrant flavour to the meat.
7. Put a little oil in a hot roasting tray (preferably a nice thick one), add the lamb, and roast, turning every 30 minutes until cooked.
8. COOKING TIMES
   Pink – 10 minutes for every 450g plus 20 minutes
   Medium – 13 minutes for every 450g plus 20 minutes
   Well-done – 20 minutes for every 450g plus 20 minutes
   Always rest the meat for at least 10 minutes before carving.