It's always an honor to appear on Good Day New York with the beloved Rosanna Scotto. This time was special because I was able to share with her, her new co-host, Curt Menefee, her audience, and the GDNY crew (who are treated, deservedly, to the bounty once the segment wraps) my favorite holiday meal of a Roman Feaster. The focus is lamb, traditional to Rome, but my version has an inspiration much closer to home.
Instead of cooking a traditional, and delicious, roast leg of lamb, I decided to go boneless and elevate the unctuous meat with unique enhancements. My mother used to make a flank steak dish, butterflied and stuffed with pesto, prosciutto, and roasted red peppers. She used to call this “Steak Cotto,” and it was always one of my favorite creations of hers, as the mingling of the flavors complimented the meat so wonderfully.
Those wonderful additions work just as well, if not better (sorry, Mama), with lamb since the flavor profile is more complex. I also love how the bright colors of the pesto and peppers add vibrancy to the aesthetic of the sliced pieces. Of course, prosciutto makes everything better.
A way to make this a little, or even a lot, less arduous is to have your butcher de-bone the leg of lamb and trim the meat of excess fat. You can even ask your friendly neighborhood butcher to do the layering, rolling, and tying (though I love doing this myself). I also bought the pesto and the roasted peppers as a short cut.
Regardless, what you will have is a festive, delicious lamb (recipe below) to highlight your “Roman Feaster” with the sides detailed in the following links:
Stuffed Leg of Lamb
8-10
servings30
minutes1
hourIngredients
1 5-6 lb. 1 Boneless leg of lamb, trimmed & butterflied
1/2 lb. 1/2 Prosciutto
8 oz. 8 Pesto
8 oz. 8 Roasted Red Peppers
Salt & Pepper
1 cup 1 water or broth
Butcher's Twine
Directions
- Season the leg of lamb on both sides with salt & pepper.
- On the inside, spread the pesto over the meat.
- Layer the meat with prosciutto.
- Top the prosciutto with the roasted red peppers.
- Roll the leg of lamb gently into a cylinder.
- Tie the cylinder width-wise with butcher's twine (snip of the endings).
- Tie the cylinder length-wise with a piece of twine (weaving in and out of the width-wise pieces.
- Heat the oven to 425 degrees.
- Place the lamb on a baking rack with a large roasting pan (add some stock or water to the bottom of the pain to avoid smoke from the drippings).
- Roast for 60-70 minutes, or until the internal temperature is 130-135 degrees.
- Remove from the oven and let the lamb rest, covered loosely in foil, for 20 minutes.
- Slice on the bias into 1/2 pieces.
- Serve warm!
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