A really quick and easy recipe, this delicious Italian style Leftover Lamb Ragu is the perfect way to make the most of your lamb leftovers. In fact this recipe is so good it’s worth buying extra lamb just to make sure you have plenty left over!
It’s no secret that I love lamb – I am a huge fan of this delicious meat and I am really looking forward to cooking up a lovely joint of lamb this Easter. But the thing about lovely celebratory meals is there is always lots of yummy leftovers.
I wanted to create a recipe this year that would be perfect for using up leftover lamb – making the most of a delicious joint, whilst keeping it nice and simple and suitable for a weeknight.
This recipe is not just perfect for Easter leftovers, but also for when you have leftovers from your Sunday lunch (or even if you have a cheeky roast lamb dinner midweek!).
And if you don’t have any leftover lamb spare, don’t worry – you can easily ‘create’ some leftovers by quickly frying up a couple of lamb leg steaks.
Simply pan fry the lamb leg steaks for 3-4 minutes each side. Rest for 5-10 minutes, then chop into small pieces and continue with the rest of the recipe.
A ragu normally takes an hour or more gently bubbling away on the stove, but using leftovers means this lamb ragu can be done in less than half an hour – perfect for midweek cooking.
Even better, if you have a lot of lamb leftovers you could make a big batch of this and freeze some for another day – making an even speedier meal!
I wanted to make this meal feel like a bit of a treat so I cooked up some delicious Napolina Egg Pappardelle to serve with it, but this fab lamb ragu would work with any pasta shape – so go with whatever you have in the cupboard!
For me the best wine to go with this would be a Chianti or Montepulciano d’Abruzzo, but a Southern French Grenache/Syrah blend such as Cotes du Rhone or Cotes du Roussillon would also work well here. You could even add a splash of red wine to the ragu for extra richness, if you wish!
Need more ideas for your roast lamb leftovers?
Need more ideas? Check out my collection of easy leftover roast lamb recipes >>>
Prefer to use lamb mince?
Then why not try my Easy Lamb Bolognese?
Leftover Lamb Ragu
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 onion diced finely
- 1 carrot diced finely
- 1 stick of celery diced finely
- 3 cloves garlic crushed or grated
- 600 g cooked lamb leftovers chopped into bitesize pieces
- 350 ml passata (or a 400g tin of chopped tomatoes)
- 300 ml lamb stock (from a cube is fine)
- 3 dried bay leaves (or a couple of sprigs of rosemary or thyme, if you prefer)
- Salt and pepper
- 250 g pappardelle (or any pasta shape you like)
- Parmesan to serve
Instructions
- Place the olive oil, onion, carrot and celery in a wide saucepan or sauté pan and cook over a gentle heat with a lid on for 5 minutes until softened. Stir occasionally.
- Add the garlic and lamb and cook for a further 2 minutes over a low heat.
- Add the passata (or chopped tomatoes), lamb stock, bay leaves, salt and pepper. Turn up the heat and bring to the boil.
- Reduce the heat and simmer (with no lid) for 15 minutes until the sauce is nicely thickened.
- Meanwhile cook your pasta according to packet instructions and drain, reserving a little cooking water
- When the sauce is ready, toss the pappardelle in the sauce along with a little of the cooking water and serve with parmesan cheese to grate on the top, if you wish.
Notes
Need advice on how to buy and cook lamb for Easter? Check out these fab tips from an experienced butcher…
Love Lamb? Check out my collection of Easy & Delicious Lamb Recipes
Pin Leftover Lamb Ragu for later
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Another gorgeous looking recipe Eb – I haven’t cooked with pappardelle for absolutely ages, probably years, and now I’m definitely adding this to next week’s shopping list. Thanks for the inspiration x
Pappardelle is lovely – one of my favourite pasta shapes! The Napolina one is especially nice – I love how rough and rustic it is!! Eb x
Excellent recipe. I used dried oregano and feta cheese instead of Parmesan. Also added a tablespoon of milk mixed with ketchup in last 10 minutes and a spoon of red pepper relish. Delicious thank you!
Thanks, Anne Marie. So pleased you enjoyed it and love the sound of your adaptations! Eb 🙂
This sounds delicious and so simple. I live in house full boys, so there’s not often much left over food – especially lamb. But I think your idea to buy extra is a great one and then it’s ideal for an easy and quick mid week meal. Pinning this! #brilliantblogposts
Aw, thanks! Yes, sometimes it’s good to make extra for leftovers, and then you have a guaranteed easy peasy meal to look for the day after!! Eb x
I bet there will be a lot of leftover lamb over the next week! I love leftovers, they are often better the following day. Sorry for the late commenting and thank you for sharing with #CookBlogShare x
Haha…yes, almost certainly! And you are so right about them often being even better the next day!! Eb x
Looks absolutely delicious Eb. I love lamb too. and do sometimes have some left over so shall pin the recipe to try later
Thanks Jacqui – it is pretty scrummy 🙂 It’s great to have a few good leftovers recipes on standby for when you make too much (which happens on purpose quite a bit for me!) Eb x
What a lovely recipe for using up leftover roast lamb and that papardelle looks delicious too! Thank you so much for sharing with #CookOnceEatTwice!
Thanks, Corina…this is such a lovely way to use up leftover lamb…AND you can make extra of the ragu to freeze for another day, making it a Cook Once, Eat Thrice kind of a meal!! 😀 Eb x
3.4.18 just made with left over lamb roast – delicious ! Thank you ??
Yay! So pleased you enjoyed it. And thanks so much for letting me know. Eb 🙂
Great recipe, I substituted the celery for some yellow pepper as I didn’t have any. I diluted my home made gravy for the stock and added some red wine, it was delicious!
After the initial cooking I transferred it to my slow cooker and left on low so it’d be perfect when I came home in the evening. I’m not usually a leftover lamb fan but will definitely make this again!!
Thank you so much, Julie, for this lovely review. I love the adaptations you made…especially cooking it in the slow cooker – fab idea! And so pleased to hear it has changed your mind about leftover lamb – that’s wonderful news! Eb 🙂
This was a complete hit with my family, which is not an easy task! Great and really tasty way to use up leftover roast lamb.
Thank you so much for this lovely comment! I am so pleased you all liked it so much. And thank you so much for taking the time to let me know – really makes me happy to know my meals are being enjoyed!! Eb 🙂
Yummy this looks really tasty. I usually use beef but think I might give lamb a go.
https://www.thegreat.uk/
So pleased you like it! Yes, beef is more usual – but lamb works so well. Definitely worth a try!! Eb 🙂
I was looking for something other than curry to do with Sunday’s leftover lamb leg. This was a proper crowd pleaser, the whole family wolfed it down. I didn’t have celery but that didn’t matter & added a splash of red wine. Delicious
Thanks so much for this lovely comment, Sal – I am delighted you and your family liked it so much. Love the idea of adding a splash of red wine! Eb x
Great recipe!
I had only half the amount of meat called for and it was plenty!
I added 1/2 cup of chicken stock (what I had on hand) and 1/4 cup of red wine. I let the sauce simmer for about 30 minutes to thicken the sauce.
I used a whole box of Penne (454 grams)- again what I had on hand, and cooked only until very al-dente.
I added 2 Tbsp of butter after combining the pasta with the sauce and pasta water, cooked on Medium heat for 5 min then covered off heat for 5 min to thicken the sauce.
So delicious!!
I will use this recipe with any leftover meats- pork, venison, beef, duck, rabbit, turkey.
Thank you!
Thanks, Heather! So pleased to hear you enjoyed this recipe and love your adaptations – sounds delicious. Great idea too to use this recipe for other meats! Eb 🙂
I’ve been eyeing up this recipe for ages, finally got to make it tonight with the leftover lamb from our Easter roast. It was delicious! Xx
Aw, yay – delighted to hear that! Eb 🙂
Made this tonight but, instead of pasta, I served it over spaghetti squash. YUM!!! This will definitely be on my lamb calendar from now on. Good work.
Aw, yay! I am so happy to hear that. Thank you for this lovely feedback, Mary, and especially for the 5 STARS! Eb 🙂