With Easter nearly upon us, finding the right recipe to serve to your family can be a fun and adventurous task! You may have a meal you love to have every Easter… but why not break out of that routine and try something new? Holidays are a great time to get creative and pull out all the stops, so how about trying a recipe that combines traditional Easter flavours with some new and exciting tastes for you and your loved ones to savour?

In this recipe, blogger, chef and recipe developer Emma Cerulli, from Cook with Emma, uses a familiar item, lima beans, and blends them into an enticingly fresh and zesty chimichurri sauce. I know what you’re thinking – “lima beans with lamb?”–but you won’t be asking that for much longer. The way Emma prepares the chimichurri, the lima beans perfectly complement the lamb and taste completely different from the greens you remember from childhood. A dish originating from Argentina, chimichurri sauce is a pesto-like sauce that comes in red or green. This sauce is used on all types of meat and can be found regularly on Argentinean tables. Chimichurri, loosely translated as “a mixture of several things in no particular order”, is a mix of fresh herbs, garlic and golden extra-virgin olive oil, with a slight tang of vinegar and a kick of chili pepper. What better companion to the delicate texture and flavour of a perfectly cooked rack of lamb?

Serve your lamb with roasted potatoes, glazed carrots, and a full bodied red wine, and your Easter dinner will be faultlessly complete! With Emma helping you prepare this new take on a traditional holiday classic, it’ll be the most stress-free and delicious Easter yet!

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Roasted Rack of Lamb with Chimichurri Sauce

Servings 6 people

Author Emma Cerulli

Ingredients

Lamb

• 2 Six-bone rack of lamb trimmed and frenched
• Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

Chimichurri Sauce

• 6 cloves Garlic Chopped
• 1 bunch Italian flat-leaf parsley Roughly chopped
• 1 bunch Green onions Roughly chopped
• 2 tsp Fresh oregano Roughly chopped
• 1 can Lima beans drained and rinsed
• 1 cup olive oil divided
• 1/4 cup Red wine vinegar
• 1 pinch Red chili flakes
• Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

Instructions

• Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a small frying pan over high heat. Sauté the lima beans 5 minutes or until softened. Pour hot beans with oil into a large mason jar or container.
• Add chopped herbs, garlic, chili and vinegar to the beans. Using your favourite hand blender, pulse the ingredients until a paste forms. You will need a powerful blender and the thinkkitchen Pro-stick Hand Blender will do just the trick! Season to taste.
  
• While blending, slowly drizzle in remaining olive oil until the sauce is emulsified and thick. Marinate the racks of lamb 24 hours in half of the chimichurri marinade, refrigerated.
  
• Before cooking, let the lamb come to room temperature about 20-30 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 350°F. Prepare a roasting pan with a wire rack. For a practically perfect roasting pan, I suggest the Remy Olivier Stainless Steel Roasting Pan.
• Season the lamb liberally with salt and pepper. Lay the racks of lamb bone side down on the rack and coat with marinade.
  
• Roast the lamb in the upper third of the oven for 20-25 minutes for a medium-rare roast.
  
• Transfer the racks to a carving board; stand them upright and let rest for 10 minutes. Using a very sharp knife, like the Kiyosu Utility Knife, carve the racks between the rib bones.
  
• Spoon remaining sauce onto the Rectangular Serving Platter; lay the racks of lamb over the sauce. Serve immediately.
  

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Side Dishes: Glazed Carrots and Roasted Potatoes

Servings 6 people

Author Emma Cerulli

Ingredients

Glazed Carrots

• 1 kg Carrots Washed, trimmed and pealed
• 3 tbsp Extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 tbsp Champagne vinegar
• 2 tbsp Orange blossom honey
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Roasted Potatoes

• 4 lbs Russet potatoes Peeled and cut into eighths
• 1/2 tsp Baking soda
• 1/3 cup Goose or duck fat Melted
• 3 tbsp Fresh thyme finely chopped
• 2 cloves Garlic minced
• Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

Instructions

Glazed Carrots

• Preheat oven to 450°F.
• Cut the carrots in half lengthwise and toss with olive oil, salt and pepper.
• Place in a roasting pan and roast 30 minutes, turning once halfway through.
  
• Toss carrots with vinegar and honey, roast another 20 minutes.
• Place the carrots on to the Pearl Sea Platter to serve!

Roasted Potatoes

• Preheat oven 450°F. Line a baking sheet, like the thinkkitchen Non-stick Square Pan, with parchment paper.
• Cover potatoes with water in a large pot, the Arezzo Sauce Pan is a good option. Add a big pinch of salt and baking soda, bring to a boil. Boil potatoes about 10 minutes. Drain with a colander and let sit 10 minutes to let excess humidity evaporate.
• Stir thyme, garlic, salt & pepper into the goose fat. Carefully toss the fat with the potatoes.
• Lay the potatoes in one even layer on baking sheet. Roast for 1 hour, turning the potatoes every 20 minutes until crispy and golden brown all over. 
• Season with salt & pepper before serving and placing them on the platter with the carrots.

Choose a full-bodied red wine such as a gorgeous 2012 Loring “Central Coast” Pinot Noir or go with a 2007 Falesco Montiano Lazio, as recommended by Emma.

For a beautiful tablescape, set each place with our gorgeous Venetian dishes.

Here to help you get every detail of Easter just right,

At the ripe old age of thirteen, I started cooking in restaurants. After attending the Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts in Vancouver B.C. and much traveling, I pursued my career by cooking my way through some of the top restaurants in a city known for it’s culinary scene, Montreal.

Having been raised in a multicultural household, the urge to explore different foods came to me very young. I started researching international cuisine and focusing on what I call “the anthropology of food” to find stories, myths and legends surrounding the popular dishes of today. 

 I am now putting my knowledge to good use as a head chef, culinary instructor and coordinator of the President’s Choice Cooking School at Provigo in Lasalle. I am currently focusing on teaching children as young as two, to adults in their golden years, how to find their way around the kitchen and appreciate flavours and techniques from days of old. 

Follow her on Instagram and Facebook or visit her blog www.emmacerulli.com.