Slip-off-the-bone lamb for cooler nights using this sauce as the foundation.
My Mum and I got talking about chain cooking last weekend, and how she used to spend Sundays slow-cooking lamb (for example) and then take it in different directions when making supper during the week. And when she cooked it with potatoes and curry powder for the grown-ups, it was in a rich tomato sauce for the children – in case we couldn’t handle the heat. These days, when revisiting this nostalgic supper, I season it with cloves, a cracked cardamom pod, black peppercorns and – the irony – a red chilli.
While Mum divided her cooking into component parts by browning a batch of mince or cooking chump chops, I tend to do that with the sauce. This tomato or Neapolitan sauce serves two with spaghetti on one night and the other half can be used as the base for a braise. For a tender result it’s essential that the meat is at a simmer, never a boil. The burners on our hob are far too fierce to maintain such a constant low heat, so the pot goes into the oven instead.