Provencal Rack of Lamb with White Bean Salad

Ingredients

1 small onion, roughly chopped
6 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
4 plum tomatoes, roughly chopped
15g fresh rosemary sprigs
2 tbsp Dijon mustard
300ml red wine
1 tsp sea salt
½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
2 racks of lamb, about 675g in weight, French trimmed

White Bean Salad
250g dried cannelloni beans
900ml chicken stock
1 small onion, quartered
1 carrot, cut into four
1 celery stalk, cut into four
1½ tsp dried oregano
50ml extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
2 large tomatoes, diced
50 g black or green olives, sliced
Salt & freshly ground black pepper

Method

1. Put the onion, garlic, tomatoes, rosemary, parsley, mustard and red wine into a food processor, season and blend to a purée. Pour into a large non-metallic bowl. Trim excess fat from the lamb and add to the marinade; coat evenly, then cover and chill for 4–6 hours.
2. For the white bean salad, put the dried beans into a large saucepan and cover with at least twice their volume of water. Bring to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes; remove from the heat and soak for 1 hour. Drain and rinse. Return the beans to the saucepan with the stock, onion, carrot, celery and oregano. Bring to the boil, reduce heat and simmer for 1–1½ hours until tender. Discard the vegetables, drain the beans and transfer to a serving bowl. Add the olive oil, vinegar, parsley, tomatoes and olives; season well, and leave aside to cool.
3. Remove the lamb from the marinade. Cover the bones with foil to prevent them from burning. Barbecue the lamb over Direct Medium heat – 15 minutes for rare, 20 minutes for Medium rare and 25 minutes for well done – turning once. Let the lamb rest for 10–15 minutes, before slicing into cutlets and serving with the white bean salad.

From Weber’s Ultimate Barbecue Book by Matthew Drennan