It was one of those days where, unable to get to the shops, I needed to make dinner out of whatever was left in my almost bare fridge and freezer.
There are many times when I make up dinner based on a fridge and freezer clean out and not a specific recipe or meal plan. On the odd occasion it may be worthy of sharing, like this one turned out to be. But most of the time it isn’t. For every meal like this one, that my family really loved, there are more that I wouldn’t dream of photographing and sharing with you all.
On this particular day, my freezer had a boneless lamb shoulder and some leftover fresh lasagne sheets that I had thrown in a few weeks earlier.
I had 1/2 a block of feta, 1/2 a bag of baby spinach and some salami in the fridge that we’re all on their last legs.
The Pulled Lamb part of this recipe came out like a ‘ragu’, which is an Italian style meat based sauce you would serve with pasta. It is often cooked for a long time making it quite rich tasting and typically has wine and vegetables in it. Not having wine on hand or many vegetables either, this is my version.
If you didn’t want to make this lasagne, you could just make the pulled lamb mixture and serve it over pasta with fresh parmesan cheese. It would also freeze beautifully too.
Italian Style Pulled Lamb
Ingredients
1.5kg boned lamb shoulder
750ml jar of tomato passatta
50gm sliced salami
1 leek, washed and roughly chopped
1 tablespoon of dried oregano
a few sprigs of fresh rosemary
1 teaspoon dried chilli flakes
2 garlic cloves, peeled, chopped in half
Method
Place all ingredients in a slow cooker and cook for 6 hours, removing the lid for the last hour to thicken the sauce.
Allow to cool slightly, and using 2 forks, shred the meat, discarding any fat.
Place sauce and shredded meat in a container to either freeze for later use or place in the fridge to use the next day in either this lasagne or simply over pasta.
Lamb, Spinach and Feta Lasagne
Serves 6
Ingredients
1 quantity of pulled lamb (see above recipe)
100gm of feta, crumbled
1 cup of baby spinach leaves
8-10 truss cherry tomatoes, halved
1/2 – 1 packet of fresh lasagne sheets, depending on the size of dish you use. (Whatever sheets you don’t use, just place in a snap lock glad bag and freeze.)
Method
Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius.
Place a small amount of lamb and sauce mixture in the bottom of a lasagne dish, approx
Place fresh lasagne sheets over the top, cover lasagne sheets with baby spinach leaves, then repeat layering (lamb and sauce, lasagne sheets, baby spinach, finishing with lasagne sheets.)
Spread a small amount of any remaining sauce on top to slightly moisten sheets, then place halved cherry tomatoes on the top.
Crumble the feta over the lasagne.
Bake for 30 minutes or until golden and bubbling.
