Lamb and Lentil Ragu

A delicious stew of lamb, lentils, and root vegetables cooked with tomatoes, red wine and herbs.

This goes well over pasta or polenta, and cooks fast enough in the pressure cooker to be doable on a week-night evening after work. 

If you don't have a pressure cooker, you can just dump all the ingredients in a slow cooker and let it cook for 8 hours.

Since this recipe makes enough for about 4-6 servings, I generally serve one third on the day, and divide the rest between tubs to freeze and eat later.

• 300g diced or minced Lamb
• Olive oil - a couple of tbsp
• 2 medium Onions, peeled and chopped
• 6 cloves of Garlic, peeled and chopped
• 2 large Carrots, peeled and chopped
• 1 medium Swede, peeled and chopped
• 1/2 cup dry green Lentils
• 1 tin chopped Tomatoes - 300g
• empty tomato tin full of Red Wine
• 1 Stock Cube
• a couple of tbsp of dried herbs: Basil, Oregano
• a couple of Bay Leaves
• a sprig of Rosemary
• 1 small tin of Tomato Puree - 50g
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Brown the diced lamb in the olive oil in the pressure cooker over a medium heat.

Then turn the heat down and add the onions, garlic, and diced vegetables and let gently saute for a couple of minutes.

Add in the lentils, tomatoes, wine, crumbled stock cube and dried herbs and mix all together.

Pop in the bay leaves and rosemary and then close the pressure cooker and bring it to high pressure.

Cook on high pressure for 30 minutes.

Let the pressure cooker cool down naturally to room pressure before opening it.

Remove the bay leaves and rosemary sprig from the pan.

Stir the tomato puree through the cooked sauce thoroughly, and then adjust the seasoning to taste.

Serve over pasta or polenta, with green vegetables or salad.

Categories: Italian