Greek style lamb baked with pasta (Giouvetsi / Γιουβέτσι)

This particular dish really impressed me the first time I had the pleasure of eating it. My mother-in-law always makes this dish for me whenever I visit Greece. It's a simple dish to prepare with basic ingredients, but the flavours are truly awesome! She uses a Greek pasta called hilopites (χυλοπίτες), but orzo pasta can also be used. The hilopites (χυλοπίτες) she used were made from fresh local ingredients that she would supply to the pasta maker and needless to say they were of a truly superior quality. They are easy enough to find in packets in your local continental grocer as well though.

I've used a shoulder of lamb, cut into 6 large pieces by the butcher. I have also previously used leg of lamb to make this dish, but find that the shoulder yields a more tender meat. There are various recipes for this particular type of Greek dish. The recipe I have followed here is inspired by my mother-in-law, the best Greek cook I know!

This dish is complemented really well by the traditional Greek sides of Kalamata olives, feta cheese and crusty bread.

Eat it hot. It will be hard to further resist the smells of roasting lamb wafting through the kitchen.

Recipe


You will need:


1 shoulder of lamb, cut into 5 to 6 large pieces
salt and pepper
dried oregano
olive oil
3 tomatoes, blended slightly
2 garlic cloves crushed
200g orzo/ hilopites (χυλοπίτες) pasta
Grated Parmesan/ kefalotiri cheese

Rub the lamb with salt, pepper, oregano and olive oil. Place in a large Pyrex dish with a little water, cover with foil and place in a pre-heated oven at 230º C for 10 minutes. Then reduce the heat to 180 ºC and bake for 1 hour.
Add the blended tomatoes with garlic, cover with foil and bake for another hour.
Then add the pasta and a little water if there isn't enough liquid for the pasta to simmer in.
Cook in the over for a further 10-15 minutes until the pasta is done.
Serve with grated cheese and eat hot.