LEFTOVER LAMB SHANKS

The day after our farmers market feast, Sarah went off to the restaurant where she was working. Evan slept in after his last night cooking at the restaurant where he worked. Around noon, he volunteered to make lunch and headed out to the kitchen. There were lots of leftovers from the night before, but when he had finished you would not have recognized at all that they were leftovers.

He whipped up a fragrant pasta dish which included the leftover lamb shanks, a reduction of the cooking liquid,  freshly cooked pasta, mushrooms, and some wilted baby salad greens.

Uncooked campanelle pasta

The pasta he chose was campanelle which  with its bell shape and fluting was a perfect choice to hold the sauce. This unusual pasta shape was listed in a catalog of Sicilian pastas at the end of the nineteenth century. You can read more about it in an interesting book,  Encyclopedia of Pasta, written by Oretta Zanini de Vita and translated by Maureen B. Fant (University of California Press, Berkeley, 2009), which describes the history and  making of Italian pasta.

Lamb shanks, campanelle pasta, mushrooms and wilted greens

RECIPE

Ingredients

• 2 cups leftover lamb braising liquid, strained and de-greased
• 1 cup campanelle pasta
• 1 cup leftover lamb shanks, cut into bite-sized pieces
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 cup mushrooms, trimmed and cut into bite-sized pieces
• 1 cup baby salad greens
• salt and pepper

Method

• Bring the braising liquid to a boil and add the campanelle. Boil until the pasta is al dente.
• Add the lamb  and warm over low heat until heated through.
• While the pasta is boiling, heat the olive oil in a small sauté pan over medium heat. Add the mushrooms and sauté for 3 minutes.
• Stir the mushrooms into the lamb and pasta.
• Add the salad greens, toss lightly, correct the seasoning and serve immediately.