Roast lamb: perfectly family Easter Sunday lunch

This is hands down my favourite roast dinner. I have so many fond memories: the house filled with the smell of slow roasting meat and garlic, hours of asking "how much longer?" before sitting down as a family to devour it, spilling half of it down my front (inevitable), maybe being allowed a drop of red wine...

A leg of lamb is a great choice for family gatherings on lazy Sundays: it takes only a few minutes to prepare, then you have hours to spend together while it roasts before you need to do the trimmings while it rests - or delegate to some little helpers. My first attempt at cooking this version was in Saundersfoot on the Welsh coast with a bunch of friends; we'd bought a large leg of lamb from the local butchers and I phoned my Mum to get instructions. We played Monopoly while the joint roasted. The blackened bits of paste worried them a little but once they'd tried it they were fighting over the sweet crunchy pieces and it was huge success. 

I highly recommend getting your joint from a butchers where you can discuss exactly what you want and can be assured of the quality of the meat. I'm embarrassed to say that although we live 3 minutes walk from Smithfield's market, I didn't get up early enough to buy direct (and save myself a small fortune) but instead walked 30 minutes further to Quality Chop House on Farringdon Road. On the plus side, QCH also sell my favourite peanut butter, but it did mean walking home with a 2.5 kg leg of lamb on the hottest day of the year so far (it's April so it wasn't that hot, but you get the picture).

Ingredients 

(Serves 6 with leftovers)

1 leg of lamb: 2-2.5kg, bone in, at room temperature 

3 sprigs of rosemary,  leaves picked

3 fat garlic cloves

5 tbsp tomato purée

1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

Roast dinner "trimmings" to serve

Method

1. Score the skin and fat on the lamb with a sharp knife

2. Crush the rosemary leaves with the garlic in a pestle and mortar, then add the tomato purée and Worcestershire sauce to make a paste

3. Rub the paste all over the joint, squidging into the holes made with the knife

4. Roast at 180C for about 3 hours for a pink-in-the-middle joint (to calculate timings for your joint allow 25mins per 450g plus 25 mins). The paste will go black in places; if it starts smelling burnt cover with foil for the rest of the roasting time.

5. Rest under foil and a tea towel for at least 30 minutes before carving. Scrape the juices from the bottom of the roasting pan to add to the gravy.

Serve with your favourite roast dinner trimmings; for us that's garlic & rosemary roast potatoes, yorkshire pudding(s), obligatory vegetables and red wine gravy. Don't forget to share out the black bits.

Happy Easter!