Leg of lamb from the Roman pot with Roquefort crust on porcini mushroom tagliatelle, garnished with princess bacon beans

Ingredients for 5 servings:

• 1 leg of lamb from the region, preferably organic, boneless
• 10 onions
• 6 garlic cloves
• 500 ml vegetable stock
• 2 rosemary sprigs, possibly 3
• 4 tbsp salt, coarse (black lava salt)
• 4 garlic cloves
• 2 tbsp rosemary, finely ground
• 4 tbsp rosemary, fresh, finely chopped
• some pepper from the mill
• 100 g Roquefort or other strong blue cheese
• 200 ml crème fraîche
• 450 g wheat flour type 550
• 4 eggs, organic
• 4 pinches of salt
• 2 tbsp mushroom powder (porcini mushroom powder)
• 1 handful of porcini mushrooms, dried
• olive oil
• 50 green beans, for 10 packets of 5 beans each
• 10 slice(s) bacon, streaky, thinly sliced
• 500 ml veal stock, homemade
• n. B. flour butter
• salt and pepper
• some vinaigrette (cassis vinaigrette)

Instructions

Working time approx. 4 hours; Rest time approx. 12 hours; Cooking/baking time approx. 8 hours; Total time approx. 1 day

from the show “The Perfect Dinner” on VOX from 28.05.2020

Prepare the marinade for the leg of lamb the night before. To do this, pound the lava salt, rosemary powder, crushed garlic cloves, chopped rosemary, and freshly ground pepper with cold-pressed olive oil until smooth. Rub the marinade vigorously into the leg of lamb, vacuum seal, and let it marinate overnight in the refrigerator. Half an hour before cooking, soak the Roman pot in cold water. Cut the garlic cloves into sticks and generously stud the leg of lamb with them. To do this, pierce the leg of lamb with a small, sharp knife and push a garlic stick into each pocket. Clean the onions, but do not peel them, halve them, and arrange them in the Roman pot, skin on, as a “bed” for the leg of lamb. If desired, briefly press a few unpeeled garlic cloves and place them in the Roman pot. Place the leg on top. Pour in the vegetable stock and place the Roman pot, lid closed, in a cold oven. Set the oven to 90°C with fan. Braise the leg of lamb, covered, for 5 hours at 90°C. Baste with the liquid from the Roman pot every hour. Meanwhile, prepare the other ingredients. Since the pasta dough needs to rest in the refrigerator for about 1 hour, prepare the dough first. Soak the dried porcini mushrooms in lukewarm water, then drain and chop very finely. Knead the flour with the mushroom powder, the eggs, chopped mushrooms, salt, and a little extra-virgin olive oil until you have a smooth pasta dough. Let it rest in the refrigerator for about 1 hour. After the resting time, use a pasta machine to turn the dough into tagliatelle and hang the tagliatelle on a pasta rack to dry. Then make the sauce. Pour the veal stock into a saucepan, top up with the cooking juices from the Roman pot if desired, and reduce the sauce slightly. Season to taste with salt, pepper, and blackcurrant vinaigrette and continue to reduce until the sauce has a strong, pleasant flavor. Remove the sauce from the heat. Now wash the green beans and trim off the ends. Cook the beans in the steamer for about 15 minutes. Then turn off the steamer to prevent the beans from cooking any further. After the leg of lamb has braised at 90°C for 5 hours, remove the lid and increase the temperature to 100°C. Meanwhile, mix the Roquefort with the crème fraîche until as smooth as possible. The best way to do this is to use a sturdy fork to mix the ingredients at room temperature. After 6.5 hours of cooking, remove the Roman pot from the oven. Place the leg of lamb in a baking dish and spread the Roquefort mixture all over. Then return it to the oven and cook slowly with the fan-assisted grill at 75%. Be careful, you should always keep an eye on the leg, as the crust can burn relatively quickly. In the meantime, melt some butter in a large pan over medium heat. Wrap the green beans in a slice of bacon, forming parcels of about five each, and place them in the pan with the butter. Lightly fry the bacon and reheat the beans. Cook the freshly made pasta in a large pot of salted water for about 4 minutes, then drain. Add flour and butter to the sauce to bring it to the desired consistency and season again briefly. Remove the leg of lamb from the oven with the browned crust and cover with aluminum foil to allow it to rest for a few minutes. The plates should be preheated before serving. A dry Merlot Heideboden 2017 from Weingut Wendelin goes perfectly with this dish. Michael prepared this recipe as a main course on the show “The Perfect Dinner” – Day 4 at Lake Constance – on Thursday, May 28, 2020.