Lamb Shanks with White Beans Cassoulet Style

Lamb shanks were on sale recently so I bought a couple and was going to make them with lots of herbs, but it was taking too much effort to find all the herbs needed. This is an easy recipe, but it takes time. Serves 4:

Lamb Shanks with White Beans Cassoulet Style

• 2 bone-in lamb shanks (about 2 1/2 pounds total)
• Salt and pepper
• 2 whole cloves
• 2 small bay leaves
• 1 small onion, peeled and halved
• 2 medium carrots, peeled
• 1/2 head garlic, cloves separated but unpeeled, plus 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1 strip of orange peel
• 1 large can white beans, drained and rinsed
• 2 links sausage, cut into 2” pieces (optional)
• 1 tablespoon chopped rosemary
• 1 tablespoon chopped thyme
• 1 cup coarse dry breadcrumbs
• 2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for drizzling
• ¼ cup chopped parsley

Season the shanks generously with salt and pepper. Let them sit for an hour at room temperature or overnight in the fridge. Put the shanks in a large pot. Use a clove to pin a bay leaf to each piece of onion and add to the pot. Add carrots and garlic cloves along with the orange peel and fill the pot with about 4 cups water. Set the pot over high heat and bring to a boil. Turn heat to low and let simmer. Skim off any foam, then partly cover the pot. Cook until lamb is very tender and begins to fall from the bone when probed, about 1½ hours. Leave lamb to cool in the broth.

Once the lamb is cool enough to handle, strain the broth into a container and reserve. Tear the lamb into rough 1” strips. Chop the cooked carrots and onion and add to the lamb. (Discard the garlic cloves and bay leaves.) If you’re going to finish the dish the next day, put the lamb and veggies in a container.

When you’re ready to finish the dish, heat oven to 350°F /175°C. Put the beans in a 9×13” baking dish or Dutch oven. Add the lamb and vegetables, the minced garlic and half of the rosemary and thyme, and the sausage, if using. Mix with the beans. Taste and season. Push down on the mixture until it’s flat. Add enough of the lamb broth to cover the beans. Cover dish tightly with foil, place on a baking sheet and bake for about 1 hour, until most of the liquid has been absorbed and the dish is bubbling at the edges.

While the lamb is cooking, in a small bowl mix the remaining rosemary and thyme, breadcrumbs and 2 tablespoons olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle the breadcrumb mixture evenly over the beans and lamb. Drizzle olive oil over the top. Bake for 1 hour more, until the top is golden and the dish bubbles at the edges. Add more lamb broth if the beans seem dry. Sprinkle with parsley, serve and enjoy!

My verdict:

A great riff on cassoulet! It may seem daunting, especially time-wise, but you can do the lamb shanks one day and finish the dish the next day. This was really good on the first night and (like cassoulet) excellent a couple of nights later. If you have an extra day (or a pressure cooker), you can start this earlier and use dried beans. It’s probably better that way, but I had a can of white beans in the pantry, so opted to be lazy. I grabbed a couple of sausages from the butcher and added them when I put the whole thing together. They were a nice addition, but totally not necessary. As per usual, we had no parsley, so there went the garnish. Not sure how much the orange peel added, so let’s consider that optional.