My mother is in town for several days and we just so happened to have some lamb left over from some delicious burgers that we made the other night. She kept talking about a pasta dish that her mom (my grandmother) used to make for her as a kid that had lamb and cinnamon in the sauce. We scoured the web trying to find a recipe that was at least somewhat close to what my mom remembered. We found nothing and so decided to try to replicate the dish on our own with ingredients that are easy to find at your local mega-mart. What we got was something that brought my mom back several decades and was nearly spot on. So, why keep this recipe to ourselves when it would be far better to share it with others.
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The sauce for this greek-style pasta is not something that you are going to be able to make in a few minutes. It will take ours but do not let that turn you away. If you think that you will be in a time crunch, prepare the sauce the night before and then when you are ready to serve it, just place it on the stove for 10-15 minutes to heat it up while the pasta cooks. The long simmer time is needed to both fully cook the meat, infuse the unique flavors of oregano, cinnamon, thyme, and basil into the meat and the sauce, and thicken the sauce down to something that goes well over pasta. Whatever you do, do not rush the sauce as you will be disappointed with the results if you do so.
This dish is great for sunday dinner or a party. The cinnamon adds quite a unique touch that will likely surprise the family and/or your guests. However, I am sure that they will be pleasantly surprised. We hope that you and your friends/family enjoy our greek-style pasta with lamb and cinnamon tomato sauce.
Enjoy.
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4 Comments
Will be trying this weekend! Do you have a beer recommendation?
Great . . . let us know what you think of it.
That is a very good question. Greek beer is very hard to find in the states and so I would not recommend driving all over the state trying to find some. However, it is September and that means that fall beers are hitting the shelves in full force right now. Many of these fall beers are brewed with spices like cinnamon and nutmeg and so pairing the pasta with one of them will accentuate the cinnamon in the sauce. I would suggest Punkin from Dogfish Head or Smashed Pumpkin from Shipyard. Enjoy.
I just spent a month in Greece from December to January this last year with my sixteen year old daughter, visiting family and friends. My personal recommendation is: Mythos, an excellent Greek beer brewed by Carlsberg the Danish brewery in Greece. It is expensive now due to the economic crisis in Greece and difficult to find but, worth the price, if you can find it. There is a Heineken brewery in Greece and I have pointed out to Dutch friends that this beer is superior to the Dutch Heineken, which is excellent in itself. I attribute this to the pure waters found in Greece; unfortunately I have never found Greek brewed Heineken outside of Greece. The Mythos is at least as good if not better. Enjoy!
Yes, I have had Mythos before. In fact, I brought a bottle back to the states with me during my last trip to Greece. You bring up a good point however though that pairing this dish with a lighter beer, like Mythos (or any other pilsner/lager) will help prevent the beer from overpowering the rich, spicy sauce.
As for Heineken, well, I think that there are a lot of folks out there that do not realize that these mass-produced beers are no longer just brewed where they originally started. And, because of that, depending upon which brewery you get the beer from, it can taste different (and be priced differently too). Not only is this occurring at the level of Heineken, but also on the smaller breweries that are being swallowed up by the big corporations. For example. I recently saw that Goose Island out of Chicago is going to be produced in several states soon as part of Anheuser Busch’s plan to make craft beer available to everyone. I am not sure what I think about that idea though . . .
I hope you enjoyed your trip to Greece, it is a fantastic country to visit for both history, natural beauty, and fantastic food and drinks.