Roast leg of lamb with basil & mint pesto Recipe

Roast leg of lamb with basil & mint pesto

Score the skin of your lamb and marinate with a herby, garlicky pesto for an extra special Sunday roast. - by Chantal Walsh

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Score the skin of your lamb and marinate with a herby, garlicky pesto for an extra special Sunday roast.

Ingredients

2 kg bone-in lamb leg, skin scored (see tip below)

Fresh garden herbs and lemon, to serve (optional)

For the pesto

1 small garlic clove, roughly chopped

1 small bunch basil, leaves only

1 small bunch mint, leaves only

25 g pine nuts

25 g grated Parmesan

125 ml extra virgin olive oil

juice ½ lemon

First, make the pesto. Put all the ingredients (except the olive oil and lemon juice) and a pinch of salt into the small bowl of a food processor. Pulse until very finely chopped. While the processor is on, drizzle the olive oil in to make a paste. Tip the pesto into a small bowl and stir in the lemon juice.
Heat oven to 200C/180C fan. Put the scored lamb leg in a large roasting tin and use half the pesto to generously coat the skin and flesh, pressing it between all the cracks for extra juiciness. Put the rest of the pesto in the fridge, covered with cling film, and remove just before serving.
Roast the lamb for 1 hr 45 mins. Check during cooking that it’s not drying out – if the base of the roasting tin starts to look dry, spread a little more pesto over the top of the lamb.
Remove the lamb from the tin, cover with foil and leave to rest for 30-40 mins before serving on lemon slices and fresh garden herbs, if you like. Carve at the table and serve with the remaining pesto to drizzle over.