Italian Sicilian Lamb with Tomato and Olives | Agnello alla Siciliana con Pomodoro e Olive
This is the lamb of the Sicilian interior, of the Iblei plateau behind Ragusa and the high pastures of the Madonie, cooked the way it is cooked there at Easter: browned hard in olive oil, let down slowly with tomato in two forms, one fresh and one dried, and finished with Nocellara olives and wild oregano. It reduces until the sauce stops being liquid and becomes a dark glaze clinging to the bone.
The two tomatoes are the point of the dish. Crushed tomato brings acidity and volume. Sun dried tomatoes, soaked and chopped, bring the concentrated sweet savoury depth the sun puts into fruit on a Sicilian roof in August, and a spoon of estratto, the dense hand made tomato paste of the island, pushes it further still.
A little eggplant goes in late, browned separately so it keeps its identity, and the olives arrive later still. Both are supporting voices: the lamb has to stay the loudest thing on the fork.
Yield: 6 servings. Prep: 35 minutes. Cook: about 2 hours. Rest: 15 minutes. Total: about 2 hours 50 minutes. Difficulty: intermediate. Course: secondo. Region: Sicily, the Iblei plateau and the Madonie.
The Story
Sicily eats lamb at Easter because of what lies under the fields. The Iblei plateau, the limestone shelf behind Ragusa, Modica and Noto, and the Madonie range above Cefalu are grazing country, too stony for much else. The Comisana ewe, cream coloured with a red brown head, takes its name from Comiso in the heart of the Iblei; the Pinzirita and the Barbaresca hold the drier ground west. Their lambs reach the table young, in spring, when the calendar asks for them.
The Easter lamb of the island is usually roasted over wood, but the domestic version, cooked in a pot on a Sunday rather than in a yard at a feast, is this one. A braise was the answer for the shoulder rather than the rack, and for households feeding ten out of one animal. Everything beyond the lamb was already in the house: tomato put up the previous summer, olives from the autumn cure, oregano dried on the stem.
The olive is the Nocellara del Belice, grown west of Palermo and one of the few table olives with a protected designation. It is fat, mild and faintly grassy, far less aggressive than the small black olives of the mainland south, which is why a Sicilian braise carries this many without turning bitter. The oregano is the wild oregano of the Iblei, cut in flower and dried on the branch. Those two place this pot in Sicily and nowhere else.
Ingredients
For the lamb
Bone in lamb shoulder, cut into large pieces, 3 1/2 lb (1.6 kg)
Fine sea salt, 2 tsp (12 g), for salting ahead
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Extra virgin olive oil, 3 tbsp (45 ml)
For the tomato base
Yellow onion, large, thinly sliced, 1
Garlic cloves, lightly crushed, 5
Sicilian sun dried tomatoes, 2 oz (55 g)
Hot water, for soaking the dried tomatoes, 3/4 cup (180 ml)
Tomato estratto or concentrated tomato paste, 1 tbsp (17 g)
Dry Sicilian white wine, 3/4 cup (180 ml)
Crushed tomatoes, 2 cups (480 g)
Bay leaves, 2
Dried wild oregano on the branch, 1 tbsp (3 g)
Crushed red pepper flakes, 1/4 tsp (0.5 g)
For the olives and the eggplant
Nocellara del Belice olives, pitted and halved, 3/4 cup (110 g)
Salted capers, rinsed, 1 tbsp (10 g)
Eggplant, medium, cut into 1 inch (2.5 cm) pieces, 1
Fine sea salt, 1 tsp (6 g), for drawing the eggplant
Extra virgin olive oil, for browning the eggplant, 3 tbsp (45 ml)
For finishing
Fresh oregano leaves, 1 tbsp
Finely grated zest of 1 unwaxed lemon
Flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped, 2 tbsp
Extra virgin olive oil, a thread for each plate
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Preparation
Step 1
Salt the lamb ahead. Trim the shoulder of surface fat but leave a thin covering and every bone in place, then cut it into pieces of roughly 3 oz (85 g). Salt them with the 2 teaspoons of fine sea salt and leave them uncovered on a rack in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour, or up to 12. The salt dissolves in the drawn moisture and is pulled back in, seasoning the meat through, and the dried surface browns far better than wet meat will.
Step 2
Soak the dried tomatoes and prepare the olives. Cover the sun dried tomatoes with the hot water for 20 minutes, until supple. Lift them out, chop them roughly and keep the soaking water: it is concentrated tomato broth and goes into the pot later. Pit the olives under the flat of a knife and halve them. Rinse the salted capers, soak them 10 minutes and drain, since they carry enough salt to unbalance the braise.
Step 3
Salt and brown the eggplant. Toss the pieces with the teaspoon of salt in a colander, leave 20 minutes, then pat them dry. Brown them in the 3 tablespoons of oil over medium high heat in a single uncrowded layer until golden and just tender, then lift them onto absorbent paper. Browned separately they stay recognisable; raw they collapse into pulp.
Step 4
Brown the lamb hard. Pat the salted pieces dry once more. Heat the oil in a heavy casserole until it shimmers, then brown the lamb in three batches, about 3 minutes a side. You want a deep mahogany crust on at least two faces, not a pale tan. Crowding drops the temperature and the lamb steams in its own juice, costing you the colour and the fond.
Step 5
Build the base and bloom the estratto. Pour off all but 2 tablespoons of fat, drop the heat to medium and add the onion with a pinch of salt. Cook 8 to 10 minutes, scraping the fond off the bottom as the onion releases moisture, then add the garlic and chilli for 1 minute. Push everything aside, put the estratto in the clear space and fry it 45 seconds, until it darkens and smells sweet rather than raw. That short fry turns tomato paste from sharp to savoury.
Step 6
Deglaze and add both tomatoes. Pour in the white wine and let it bubble hard 2 to 3 minutes, scraping until the base is clean and the alcohol smell has gone. Add the crushed tomatoes, the chopped sun dried tomatoes with their soaking water, the bay leaves and the dried oregano crumbled between your palms. Taste the liquid now: it should read bright and only lightly salty, because it concentrates over the next 90 minutes.
Step 7
Braise low and slow. Return the lamb and every drop of collected juice, tucking the pieces in so they sit two thirds submerged rather than drowned. Bring it back to the barest simmer, cover with the lid slightly ajar and hold it there 1 hour 30 minutes, turning every 30 minutes. The surface should shiver, never roll. Collagen needs long, low heat to become gelatin: pushed hard, the fibres tighten and squeeze out moisture faster than the tissue can soften.
Step 8
Add the olives, capers and eggplant, then reduce. When the lamb yields to a fork but still holds on the bone, stir in the olives, drained capers and browned eggplant. Cook uncovered a final 15 to 20 minutes, until the sauce coats the meat and a spoon drawn across the bottom leaves a track. Taste for salt only now, with the olives in. Off the heat, scatter the fresh oregano and lemon zest over the top, cover and rest 15 minutes.
Plating
This is family food and it should look like it, but rustic is not careless. Warm the plates to around 140°F (60°C), because a sauce carrying this much gelatin sets and turns dull on a cold surface. Deep plates or shallow bowls work better than flat ones.
Give each person two pieces, one with a good bone and one meatier, set slightly overlapping. Spoon the sauce over and around them and make sure every plate gets its share of olives, capers and eggplant rather than leaving them in the pot. Fish out the bay leaves first.
Finish with the parsley, a pinch of fresh oregano, black pepper and a thread of Sicilian oil over the sauce rather than over the meat. Bread is the right accompaniment, ideally a sesame crusted mafalda. If you want a vegetable, keep it plain: boiled new potatoes or bitter greens absorb the sauce without competing.
Professional Technique
The technique that defines this braise is the layering of tomato in three states. Crushed tomato supplies water, acidity and the volume the lamb cooks in. Sun dried tomato supplies glutamates and concentrated fruit sugar, plus a soaking liquid that is effectively tomato tea. Estratto, fried in fat before any liquid arrives, supplies colour and the roasted note of caramelised sugars. Use one alone and the sauce is thin and sharp or heavy and flat; use all three in that order and it gains depth without losing acidity.
The second technique is the staggered arrival of the salty elements. Olives and capers hold a great deal of salt and release it slowly. Added at the start of a 90 minute braise they season the sauce unpredictably, and by the time the liquid has halved the dish is inedibly salty. Added in the last 20 minutes they perfume the sauce and let you season accurately once the volume of liquid is fixed.
The third is knowing when to take the lid off. For the long braise it stays on with a small gap, which holds the temperature stable and stops the liquid reducing faster than the collagen can convert. Once the meat is tender the lid comes off and reduction becomes the whole job. Braise covered, finish uncovered.
Texture and Moisture Control
Lamb shoulder is a worked muscle laced with connective tissue, which is why it suits this treatment and why it punishes impatience. Collagen converts to gelatin properly between 180°F and 195°F (82°C and 90°C), held there for well over an hour, and that gelatin gives the sauce its body and shine. The fibres contract and expel moisture on the way, so shoulder passes through a dry stage around the one hour mark before coming out moist again. If it is tough at 60 minutes, the answer is more time, not more heat.
Moisture control is mostly the lid and the flame. Hold the surface at a shiver, a bubble breaking every second or two. At a real simmer the liquid reduces too fast, the pieces above the line dry out and the tomato on the bottom catches and turns bitter. If the level drops below halfway before the meat is tender, add hot water rather than cold.
The eggplant and the olives are the textural counterweights and both fail by going in too early. Salted, dried and browned eggplant has a set exterior and a creamy inside that survives 20 minutes in sauce. Olives cooked for 90 minutes go soft, grey and bitter. Twenty minutes lets both take on the sauce while keeping a shape you can identify on the fork.
Professional Mise en Place
Equipment and tools
Heavy casserole with a lid, wide enough to hold the lamb in one layer
Wide sauté pan for the eggplant, separate from the braising pot
Rack over a tray for salting the lamb ahead
Colander for the eggplant, bowl for soaking the dried tomatoes
Tongs, slotted spoon and a ladle for skimming fat
Prepared ahead
Lamb trimmed, cut and salted, up to 12 hours ahead, uncovered on a rack
Dried tomatoes soaked and chopped, soaking liquid reserved, on the day
Olives pitted and halved, capers rinsed and drained, up to 1 day ahead
Eggplant salted, dried and browned, up to 4 hours ahead
The braise cooked up to the point before the olives go in, 1 day ahead
Service setup
Plates warming at around 140°F (60°C), never served cold
Fat skimmed just before the final reduction
Olives, capers and eggplant in one bowl within reach of the pot
Oregano picked, lemon zested and parsley chopped at the last minute
Bread cut and covered, olive oil open beside the plates
Chef Tips
Buy the shoulder bone in and ask the butcher to cut it across the bone. The bones give the sauce body no stock addition replaces and meat around a bone stays measurably more moist across two hours. Boneless shoulder works but needs 20 minutes less and the sauce will be thinner.
Use Nocellara del Belice in the green cure if you can find it, since its mild buttery flesh lets you put this many olives in the pot without bitterness. The same cultivar cured to full ripeness, the darker olive many Sicilian households keep, is equally correct and rounder. What does not work is a pitted olive sold swimming in bright brine.
Make it a day ahead. Stop after the covered braise, before the olives and eggplant go in, cool it and refrigerate overnight. The fat sets and lifts off in one sheet, far cleaner than skimming a hot pot, and the sauce tastes more integrated.
Dried oregano is better for the braise and fresh for the finish, so use both. Crumble the dried branch between your palms to release the oils, and keep a little fresh back for the moment the pot leaves the heat, where its top notes survive instead of boiling away.
Common Mistakes
Adding the olives at the beginning. Ninety minutes in a reducing sauce strips their brine out and leaves the braise aggressively salty with no way to correct it. They go in for the last 20 minutes only.
Browning the lamb in one crowded batch. The pot temperature collapses, the meat poaches in its own juice and you get pale lamb and no fond. Three batches with space between the pieces is the whole difference.
Boiling instead of braising. A rolling simmer drives off the liquid before the collagen has converted and leaves the lamb stringy. Keep the surface at a bare shiver with the lid slightly ajar for the full 90 minutes.
Putting the eggplant in raw. It disintegrates completely and turns the sauce pasty. Salt it, dry it, brown it in a separate pan and add it at the end.
Skipping the dried tomatoes. Crushed tomato alone gives you lamb in tomato sauce. The soaked sun dried tomato and its liquid are what make the sauce read as Sicilian.
Wine Pairing
Cerasuolo di Vittoria DOCG: The most local bottle on the list, since the vineyards of Vittoria sit on the same Iblei plateau the lambs graze. Nero d'Avola for structure and Frappato for perfume give red cherry and a floral lift over moderate tannin, so it meets the tomato acidity without piling weight onto an already rich sauce. Serve it at 61°F (16°C).
Etna Rosso DOC: Nerello Mascalese on volcanic ash gives high acidity and fine sandy tannin, closer to a mountain Nebbiolo than to anything else in the south. That acidity cuts the lamb fat cleanly while the ash and dried herb finish runs straight into the wild oregano.
Faro DOC: A tiny appellation above Messina and the connoisseur choice. Nerello Mascalese and Nerello Cappuccio together are more perfumed and sinewy than Etna, with a salty edge from the sea below the vineyards. That salinity is what makes it work against the olives and the capers, where a rounder red would taste sweet beside them.
Aglianico del Vulture Superiore DOCG: When you want serious tannin against the gelatin in the sauce, this is the mainland answer. Grown on the volcanic slopes of Monte Vulture, it carries firm tannin and dark fruit under a smoky finish, and that tannin binds to the fat and collagen in a way the lighter Sicilian reds do not attempt.
Salice Salentino DOC: The everyday Negroamaro of the Salento, warm and generous, built on ripe plum with a faintly bitter almond finish. That bitterness is the useful part: it sits alongside the olives instead of fighting them, and there is enough soft body to carry lamb and bread.
Storage & Reheating
This is one of the braises that improves overnight. Cool it within two hours, then refrigerate it in an airtight container with the lamb covered by its sauce, where it keeps up to 4 days. The set fat should be lifted off before reheating rather than stirred back in.
Reheat on the stove, never in a microwave, which heats the meat faster than the sauce and squeezes the moisture out. Set the pot over low heat with a splash of water or stock, cover it and bring it up slowly over 20 minutes, turning the pieces once. Uncover only at the end, if it needs a minute of reduction.
It freezes up to 3 months, and the lamb should be frozen in its sauce rather than separately. Freeze it before the olives, capers and eggplant go in, since those three lose texture on thawing. Defrost overnight in the refrigerator, reheat gently, then add them fresh and finish with the uncovered reduction.
Nutrition
Per serving, based on 6 servings:
Calories: 610 kcal
Total Fat: 41 g
Saturated Fat: 13 g
Trans Fat: 0 g
Unsaturated Fat: 26 g
Cholesterol: 135 mg
Sodium: 890 mg
Total Carbohydrates: 16 g
Fiber: 4 g
Total Sugars: 8 g
Added Sugars: 0 g
Protein: 42 g
Lactose: 0 g
Principal micronutrients: iron, zinc, vitamin B12, niacin, selenium, potassium, lycopene, vitamin E
These figures are estimates. Sodium varies most, depending on how thoroughly the capers are rinsed and how far the sauce is reduced. Skimming the set fat after a night in the refrigerator lowers the fat and calorie figures considerably.
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