Rack of lamb with courgettes and tomatoes
I love lamb and this recipe is tasty and looks good too.
The lamb is easy to do, you sear the meat in a hot pan with some olive oil, then spread the loin side with Dijon mustard and press and breadcrumb and herb (I used rosemary and parsley) mixture into the mustard.
Then you roast in in a hot oven for around 20-25 minutes, removing it to rest before carving it into individual chops.
The accompaniments to this were some boiled new potatoes and some cubed courgettes sautéed with onion, garlic and baby tomatoes in more olive oil and seasoned with salt, pepper, herbes de Provence and chopped parsley. If you wanted, you could add some chopped black olives to this too, but this might overpower the delicate lamb.
Any good red will work with this, we had a 2006 red Bordeaux from the Entre-Deux-Mers, Château Labourdette 2006, from Laithwaites. This was a slightly austere wine, with a definite edge of Cabernet Sauvignon to give a backbone to the Merlot. I would say that this represents the older style of Bordeaux rather than the in-your-face style that is popular with the likes of Robert Parker and, for me, that is a good thing. It worked well with the sweetness of the lamb and the tomatoes and didn’t dominate the food. I think that another year in bottle will see this developing nicely.
