Gluten Free Crock Pot Lamb Shanks with Homemade Pappardelle Recipe

Rich and tender lamb shanks get slow cooked with sweet carrots and tomatoes and served on a bed of soft, buttery freshly made pappardelle noodles in this comforting dish perfect for autumn!

 Feeds 2 adults; 1 toddler with leftovers

This recipe is one of those perfect bung it all in the slow cooker and forget bout it dishes. While I served my lamb shanks with homemade pasta, you wouldn't have to. Shop-bought pappardelle would suffice. I only used one lamb shank to make this entire pot. Granted, it was a fairly large shank, but it fed three of us, twice. If you only want to use one, just bulk up the dish with a few more vegetables and you'll get away with it.

I love lamb when it's been cooked low and slow and falls apart in your mouth. It has such a richness to it, it teeters on the verge of tasting slightly gamey but with a welcomed sweetness that saves it from the harsh metallic taste of venison. I'm still new to lamb, having only tried it back in 2008 when I first moved to Manchester. A group of friends and I were on our way down to London and had stopped at a motorway services (think rest area like they were in the good ol' days with restaurants and people milling about) for lunch. One of the girls in the group, an Aussie named Kate, bought a big serving of lamb shanks and proceeded to educate me on its taste. I was hooked.

Growing up in the American South, lamb wasn't something that we ate. The proteins on loop in my mom's kitchen were beef, pork, chicken and shrimp and the occasional catfish. Not to perpetuate any stereotypes, but in the 70s 80s and 90s in the States, a certain type of person ate lamb. Mostly the Brady Bunch and families of a similar ilk on telly were seen slicing into dainty chops while they schemed or plotted or laughed over some late shenanigan. I certainly didn't know anyone who'd ever eaten it. It's a shame, too, because I've been missing out!

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Ingredients:

For the lamb shanks
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
1 can chopped tomatoes
1 cup red wine
1 tbsp dried rosemary
1 onion, sliced
1 1/2 tbsp gluten free plain flour*
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp smoked paprika
2 tbsp sun-dried tomato paste
2 tsp sugar
2 tbsp lemon juice
4 carrots, sliced
lamb shanks
salt and pepper

For the pappardelle
1 portion gluten free pasta dough
knob of butter
frozen peas
salt

*consult the UK to US food equivalency chart if you're unsure

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Instructions:

 
Crock Pot Lamb Shanks with Homemade Pappardelle

1. Spread the flour out on a plate and season with a bit of salt and pepper. Toss the lamb shank in the seasoned flour and give it a shake it remove any excess. Heat the oil in a large saucepan  and brown the shanks over a medium heat. Turning the meat as needed, it should take just under 10 minutes to brown fully. Set aside.
2. Add the onions and garlic to the saucepan and cook for 5 minutes until soft. Stir in the paprika and when fragrant, add the tomatoes, puree, carrots, sugar, wine, cinnamon and rosemary and bring to the boil. 
3. Tumble the vegetable mixture to the slow cooker and add the lamb shanks. Cover a cook on high for 4 to 6 hours or low for 6 to 8 hours until the lamb is tender.
4. Meanwhile, prepare the dough for the pasta according to this pasta tutorial and leave to rest in the fridge.
5. An hour before the lamb shanks are finished, take out the dough, halve and flatten it and pass it through the pasta machine as per the instructions in the tutorial. Instead of using the spaghetti attachment, cut wide ribbons in the pasta and leave to rest in a dish, covered with a clean towel for 30 minutes.
6. Add the lemon juice to the crock pot and cook covered on high for a further 30 minutes, while the pasta rests.
7. Cook the pasta with frozen peas in a pot of salted, boiling water for about 2 to 4 minutes.
8. Serve the shanks on top of the pasta and peas.