Ok, you got me, I liked pulled things. Winter is an excellent excuse to gather with friends and nestle over a delicious hot pot of slow cooked deliciousness. Lamb shanks in particular are a ridiculously good life choice – they’re super cheap, tasty and such a freaking crowd pleaser – with minimal effort. It’s almost embarrassing that it isn’t harder to make… the only thing you need here is patience – which for some is hard, but if you put it on in the early afternoon, go do your thang, then all your efforts will be immensely rewarded.
This was created one afternoon a few weeks ago when I was working at my pal Lisa from couturing.com’s house… if you follow her on Instagram, you’ll be following her renovation progress. You may have noticed that there is one requirement for everything in her house… MARBLE! I wouldn’t be surprised if she decided to pave her drive way in marble.
Anyho, I am not big on pasta as it hurts my tummy when I eat too much of it and I can’t control myself to eat only a small amount of it – I’m too greedy! This gluten free penne pasta from Barilla is an excellent solution as it is much gentler on the digestive system as it is made from both corn and rice flours. Surprising, it doesn’t taste like cardboard like most gluten free pastas do. The package is actually right – it tastes like real pasta :).
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 onion, finely diced
- 2 large garlic cloves, finely diced
- 2 large lamb shanks
- 1 400g cans diced tomato (no salt added)
- 1 cup water
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 packet Barilla’s Gluten Free Penne Pasta
- Himalayan salt and cracked pepper to taste
- 1 large handful fresh flat leaf parsley roughly chopped
- 1 large handful fresh mint roughly chopped
- Sprinkle lamb shanks with salt and pepper and rub into the flesh.
- Heat a heavy pot with the oil until quite hot, then fry the lamb 3 minutes on each side to seal then remove lamb from the pot and set aside.
- In the same pot, sweat the onion on low for about 5 minutes without burning.
- Add the garlic and cook another minute until fragrant.
- Add tomatoes, water, thyme and lamb into the pot.
- Bring pot to the boil then simmer covered for four hours or until tender and pulling away from the bones.
- Using a folk, shred meat off the bones and discard the bones then let the meat rest in the sauce while you prepare the pasta.
- Cook the pasta according to the packet with lots of salt in the water.
- Serve the pulled lamb on pasta with handfuls of the fresh herbs.
Keep an eye our for recipes for the sides coming up soon on the blog!
