Serves 4
Ingredients
2 x 1.6kg lamb rack
4 spiky Sardinian artichokes
80gbaby carrots
120gbroad beans
120gfresh peas
2grelot onion
50gricotta mustia
40gpea shoots
30mlwhite wine
30ggarlic
30mlolive oil
Maldon salt
Salt
Pepper
Mashed potato
5 potatoes (large)
Salt
Garlic pesto
100ggarlic leaves
20ml olive oil
5g pine nuts
10gGrana Padano
Salt
Lamb jus
Lamb bones
100gcarrots
100gcelery
200gshallots
1 tbsptomato paste
30grosemary
1 bulb, halved garlic
1g juniper
500mlred wine
Method
Lamb jus
Debone the lamb with a sharp knife. Heat a casserole dish over a medium heat before adding the carrots, celery and shallots. Cook until golden in colour. Then add the garlic, rosemary, juniper and red wine and reduce until the liquid evaporates.
In the meantime roast the lamb bones in the pre-heated oven at 190˚C for 40 minutes. Add the bones and tomato paste to the casserole dish and before filling it up with water to completely cover all ingredients. Bring to boil and simmer for 12 hours. Remove any impurities as they rise to the top. Remove from the heat and let it cool down before passing the jus through a strainer into a fresh pan.
Garlic pesto
Blanch the garlic leaves in hot boiling water for less than 1 minute. Remove and add to iced water bath. Drain the garlic and blend with toasted pine nuts, olive oil, Grana Padano and a pinch of salt.
Mashed potato
Boil the potatoes in salted boiling water with the skin on. Once the potatoes are cooked remove the skin and pass through mouli to obtain a smooth mixture. To serve add the garlic pesto to the mash.
Preparation
Remove the hard leaves and fuzzy centre from the spiky artichokes. Soak the artichokes in a cold water and lemon to avoid the oxidation. Sweat the garlic in a pre-heated pan with olive oil. Place the artichokes upside down and roast for 1 minute. Add a splash of white wine and let the liquid evaporate. Cover with the lid and cook for another 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and let it cool down.
In a salted boiling water cook the baby carrots, grelot onions, broad beans and peas separately. When the vegetables are cooked drain from water and cool in iced water bath.
Peel the broad beans before re-heating them with the other vegetables in a pan just before serving.
Pre-heat the oven to 190˚C. Remove the lamb cannon from the fridge approximately 30 minutes before cooking. Season with salt and pepper; sear in a hot pan with a splash of olive oil until golden brown. Cook the lamb in the oven for 5-6 minutes (the meat needs to be pink inside). Remove from the oven and allow the meat to rest for 6 minutes. To serve, cut the cannon lamb in three pieces.
Sear the ricotta in a hot pan with a touch of extra virgin olive oil until golden and leave on the side.
To serve, plate the mashed potato, vegetables on the side, the pieces of lamb and ricotta cheese. Finish the dish with some hot lamb jus. Garnish the plate with pea shoots, olive oil and a pinch of Maldon salt.
True to the Italian tradition, Antonio Favuzzi (known as ‘Lello’) learnt to cook in his parents’ kitchen from an early age. Preparing and creating food for the whole family was an important part of everyday life for Favuzzi, who would regularly help his grandmother make fresh, home-made bread, focaccia, pasta, and more.
Favuzzi was born in Sassari, Sardinia on 25th September 1981 and grew up there with his Sicilian mother and Puglian father. He first realised he wanted to be a chef when a catering college approached his school looking for recruits and he signed up, after which he worked for two seasons at the five-star hotel, Cervo in Sardinia. Favuzzi’s next position was at La Gritta restaurant in Palau, Italy, following which he and a small team of fellow chefs and friends launched Santini restaurant in Milan.
His London journey began in 2003 when he began working as Sous Chef at restauranteur Alan Yau’s Anda in Marylebone. Following this he worked at Franco’s on Jermyn Street, which won rave reviews. Favuzzi then moved to The Wolseley before joining the team as Sous Chef at former Corbin & King restaurant, St Alban. In 2008, he opened L’Anima.
L’Anima means ‘soul’ in Italian, and the food that Favuzzi and his team produce is created with this passion in mind. The high-end menu is reflective of Moorish cuisine, with a focus on Southern, authentic dishes such as Sardinian Fregola and Seafood Malloreddus – his parents’ Sicilian and Puglian roots a notable influence in his cooking
Translated as ‘soul’ in Italian, award-winning L’Anima is true to its name, specialising in authentic, honest Italian cuisine made with all the passion of chefs with Italian cooking in their blood. Bordering the City and Shoreditch, L’Anima was designed by famed architect Claudio Silvestrin. The open and inviting space boasts clean-cut, modern furnishings – a design that reflects the understated sophistication and quality of our seasonally-changing menu. Their Southern-influenced cuisine reinterprets dishes from Sardinia, Puglia and Sicily. Meanwhile, their award-winning wines champion environmentally friendly producers from the less well-known regions of Calabria, Lombardy and Emilia Romagna.