Campoven Lamb Ragu

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cooking Time: 2-5 hours

Difficulty: Easy

Surrounded by paddocks of brand new baby lambs literally popping out of their mothers all around us, we spent a wonderful afternoon beside the firepit, whiling away the warm spring afternoon. 

I cant think of a better setting to sit back and cook this hearty and rich pasta dish.

1 leg of lamb (or whatever piece you prefer, shoulder is also good!)

2 whole onions

1 cup of red wine

5-6 cloves of garlic

large bunch rosemary (roughly 6-8 sprigs)

1 tin crushed tomatoes

1 tub tomato paste (140g I think)

2-3 tbs balsamic vinegar

salt and pepper 

large shaped pasta such as Rigatoni 

goats cheese 

shredded parsley

1. The first step is cooking the lamb, we all have our own methods and this recipe could easily be used to reuse some leftovers from your camp roast. I roasted my leg for roughly 4 hours along with two whole onions. Placing everything on the trivet at the bottom of the campoven and then adding some water to the bottom of the pan I find helps keep everything inside tender and moist. During cooking I just top up the water each time I check and turn the lamb. 

2. Once your lamb is cooked to where it can be easily shredded with tongs and pulled off the bone we are ready to begin making our ragu! (The onions will just melt into the mix too)

3. Once the lamb has been shredded into bite size pieces I add the wine, garlic and rosemary and return it to the heat. For this recipe I cooked suspended above the coals but the campoven can also be placed directly onto the coals. Allow this to cook down for roughly 1 hour, the garlic should dissolve and the rosemary start to fall apart into the mix but it should not be dry. 

4. After an hour or so of cooking down, remove the sprigs of rosemary and add the tin of tomatoes, tomato paste and balsamic vinegar and return to the fire to cook for another 30 minutes to 1 hour until the sauce has thickened. 

5. After the second cook down, the ragu should be thick and rich but still with enough liquid to coat the pasta, now season to taste. 

6. Throw in your boiled pasta, I used rigatoni cooked to the instructions on the packet until just al dente. 

7. Scoop some pasta into a bowl along with a generous helping of the lamb ragu and top with a dollop of goats cheese and a sprinkling of parsley. 

By the time we served the sun was just setting over the hills around us, the lambs where racing up and down the paddock and the fire was stoked up to keep us cozy and warm in the cooling spring air. 

Sometimes the surroundings can make all the difference to the enjoyment of a dish so I recommend making this somewhere you can sit back and soak up the serenity as well as the delicious rich sauce in your bowl.