GARLICKY LAMB WITH SUNDRIED TOMATOES

Yes, another lamb dish for you tonight.  This is because I had frozen some of the chop-like lamb pieces I found in the supermarket the other week and, as the weather is getting colder, I cooked them last night.  I was in need of comfort and that means potatoes!   One of my favourite ways of cooking potatoes is in the oven with lots of garlic and rosemary but last night, being out of pazienza,  I decided to see if I could get a similar effect by adding the potatoes to the dish on the hob.  The answer turned out to be "Yes" but obviously they were softer.  I got the idea of adding sundried tomatoes from a recipe in the October edition of Alice Cucina but otherwise, the recipe is my own:

Heat 4 tablsp olive oil in a fairly deep pan and add 8 unpeeled garlic cloves or, if the cloves are small as mine were, 12. When they are golden add about 1 kilo of large lamb pieces and cook until browned all over.  Then add 3 - 4 unpeeled potatoes, cut into chunks.  Stir everything, then add c. 200 gr sundried tomatoes which have been preserved in oil, drained. [Sundried tomatoes are cheap in markets here and I put them in oil myself, with some basil leaves.]  Season with coarse seasalt and black pepper and add some sprigs of fresh rosemary and thyme.  Add 300 ml red wine, stir everything again, put the lid on the pan and simmer for 1 hour.  Serve the dish with a green salad.

POLLO ALLA MANTOVANA

This is in honour of my visit to Mantova but I admit I've taken some liberties with it:  firstly, you are supposed to make the recipe with rabbit but as I couldn't get any, I used boneless, skinless chicken breast [ask for one if you are in Italy but two if you are in the UK].  Secondly, I used balsamic vinegar although the recipe does not specify this.  I did not, however, halve the amount of garlic cloves - ten - although I was using half the quantity of meat.  You can use less garlic if you want to but I was pleasantly surprised by the subtlety of the flavour.

OK, here we go:  Cut the chicken breasts into fairly large pieces and marinate for about an hour in a wine glass of balsamic vinegar and about a quarter a glass of water.  Meanwhile, pound ten peeled garlic cloves with 2 - 3 sprigs of rosemary in a mortar.  Drain the chicken [no need to be too thorough about it] and put it in a wide, fairly deep pan with 4 tablesp olive oil plus seasalt and black pepper to taste.  Spread the rosemary and garlic mixture over. Cook the chicken on all sides for about 5 minutes, stirring, then turn the heat down, cover the pan and let the chicken cook for about an hour, turning it now and then.  Chuck in a glass of white wine and let it evaporate.

You can serve the dish with "the gold of the north" -  polenta -  to soak up the juices, with rice or just salad.

FOR GARLIC-LOVERS EVERYWHERE

A SPOONFUL OF AGLIO

I have just discovered that, in Italy, your neighbours don't come round asking if you can lend them a "cup of sugar" as they do in Britain; they come asking if you can lend them a few cloves of garlic [and I was very happy to oblige, reader]!