Slow-Cooked Lamb Shank with Rosemary & Red Wine

Ingredients

• 4 lamb shanks
• 400 ml lamb or beef stock
• 5 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 x 400g tin chopped tomatoes
• 3 carrots, cut into 2cm pieces
• 2 tbsp tomato puree
• salt and black pepper
• 2 onions, finely diced
• 3 sprigs fresh rosemary
• 400 ml full-bodied red wine
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 bay leaves
• mashed potato or polenta, to serve

Method

1. Heat the oven to 160°C fan. Pat the lamb shanks bone-dry with kitchen paper — water means steam, and steam means no crust — then season generously with salt and pepper on every surface.
2. Heat the oil in a large ovenproof casserole over high heat until it shimmers. Sear the shanks in two batches, 3–4 minutes per side, until deeply mahogany and crusted. Don't crowd the pan; all four at once and they'll boil in their own juices instead of building fond. Lift them out and set aside.
3. Drop the heat to medium. Fry the onions and carrots in the rendered fat for around 8 minutes, until softened, glossy, and catching gold at the edges. Stir in the garlic and tomato puree and cook for 60 seconds, just until fragrant and the puree darkens from raw red to brick — watch the garlic, it goes from pale gold to bitter in a heartbeat.
4. Pour in the red wine and bring to a brisk boil, scraping up every sticky brown bit from the base of the pan with a wooden spoon. That's the flavour of the sear dissolving into the sauce. Let it bubble hard for 4 minutes, until reduced by about a third and the sharp alcohol smell has burned off.
5. Tip in the chopped tomatoes and stock, then add the rosemary and bay. The stock and wine break the tomatoes down so they taste of fruit rather than tin — bare tinned tomatoes never deliver on their own. Nestle the shanks back in so they're mostly submerged and bring to a gentle simmer.
6. Cover tightly and transfer to the oven. Braise for 3 to 3½ hours, turning the shanks once at the halfway mark, until the meat is collapsing from the bone and the sauce coats the back of a spoon in a glossy sheet.
7. Lift out the shanks and keep them warm. Fish out the rosemary stalks and bay leaves. If the sauce is loose, simmer it on the hob for a few minutes to tighten. Taste, season, taste again — it may want a final pinch of salt to lift the wine. Adjust now, not at the table.
8. Plate each shank on a generous pillow of mashed potato or soft polenta, spoon plenty of the dark sauce over and around, and finish with a bold scatter of chopped parsley across the top.