Photo: Jason Borg

Serves 4

Ingredients
Rack of lamb, weighing around 700g
2 tbsps butter
25g pistachios
25g breadcrumbs
A quarter of a sprig of parsley
2 tbsps mustard
150ml red wine
200ml bound roast sauce
50g cherries
A quarter of a sprig of thyme
Salt and pepper

Method

Preheat the oven at 180 ° C. In a roasting pan add one-and-a-half teaspoons of butter and a pinch of salt and let it roast for about five minutes.

Grind the pistachios and mix with the breadcrumbs and parsley in a food processor until finely chopped. Grease the meat with mustard and roll it in the bread mixture.

Place the meat in the roasting pan and cook in the oven for about 15 minutes (internal temperature of the meat should be 60°C = pink).

For the sauce

Add the red wine and roast sauce with the remains of the meat juices and bring to a boil.

Drain the cherries, picking up two tablespoons of juice.

Stir the cherry juice in the sauce along with the thyme and allow to reduce.

Just before serving, add the cherries to the sauce and heat. Adjust the sauce with salt and pepper and stir in the remainder of the butter.

Serve the lamb with the sauce and mixed vegetables.

Saul Halevi is an Executive chef, Hotel Phoenicia, Floriana.