Leftover Lamb Pasta

I admit, not everybody will have eaten lamb today; lamb is relatively expensive to bu!. I’d bet though that if you did buy lamb for your Easter Sunday roast, you really don’t want to throw away any of that precious meat. This leftover lamb pasta recipe is especially designed for the itty bitty pieces that don’t come away easily when carving. They are perfect shredded into the sauce, browned until caramelised and cling to the pasta in nutty morsels.

I’ll keep this short and sweet. The recipe serves a family of 2 adults and 3 children generously. Whatever leftover vegetables you have from the Sunday roast are great recycled in this leftover lamb pasta dish. It is quick to prepare and is very frugal as you’re using up leftover meat from the day before.  Don’t be limited to use just using lamb in this pasta dish though, consider using up any leftover meat you might have from a roast such as ham, beef, chicken or turkey!

You can see from the pictures that I used squid ink pasta for this recipe. I may have mentioned a few times that I’m clearing the store cupboards? It just so happened that it was the last of the tagliatelle that I had in the house. The recipe will work, no matter what the colour of the pasta, but it’s certainly a talking point.

Ingredients

• 200g pasta of your choice
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 cloves of garlic, chopped finely
• Leftover lamb meat, finely shredded
• 5 cream crackers, crumbled (if you’re based in the US, Graham Crackers work well here)
• 1 cup of peas (frozen or leftover from the day before)
• 1 teaspoon mint sauce (optional)
• 1 fresh chilli, chopped
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Method

Bring a large pot of water to the boil and simmer your pasta according to the recommended time on the packet. Mine takes 8 minutes to cook which is just about the amount of time it takes to prepare the sauce.

In a wide, deep saucepan or frying pan, heat the olive oil on a medium heat. Add the garlic, crumbled crackers and meat. Stir well until they begin to brown. Lower the heat, add the peas and coat in the sauce. If using mint sauce to accentuate the lamb add a teaspoon now.

Strain the (now cooked pasta) and add the pasta to your sauce. Stir until completely coated. with the crumbly cracker/garlic/lamb mixture.

Season with salt & pepper to taste, then serve with chopped fresh chilli on top.

Lovely with a fresh green salad, roasted cherry tomatoes or garlic bread.

Finally, if you have any leftover chocolate from Easter Eggs you might want to use it up by baking some of my Chocolate Bar Blondies For Leftover Treats (pictured below). These blondies also freeze well so handy for stock-baking for a party or event later on next month.

Don’t forget chocolate is grand in the freezer for a short amount of time. If, by chance, you or the kids have received a glut, remove all the packaging (into the recycling bin) and break the eggs into a freezer bag. You can then take out just the right amount when you need it!