Slow-cooked Lamb with Harissa

Meet our slow-cooked lamb with Pesto Princess Harissa Paste, rosemary and preserved lemon. This beaut of a dish can be prepared far in advance so you won't miss out on a single conversation while it cooks.

Ingredients

1 kg lamb shoulder, deboned. (If you buy from a butcher, ask for the bones.)
2 sprigs rosemary, cut into 1 cm pieces
¼ preserved lemon, pith removed and chopped
2 Tbsp Pesto Princess Harissa Paste
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 onions, peeled and sliced thickly
2 cups (500 ml) white wine
½ cup mixed olives
Salt and pepper
Polenta (couscous would work well, too).

How to

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Using a sharp knife, make multiple small slits into the lamb shoulder. Push a piece of rosemary and preserved lemon into each slit.
Slather the lamb in Pesto Princess Harissa Paste, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Place the onions, and the bones if you have them, in the base of a large, heavy-based oven-proof casserole, and plop the lamb on top. We absolutely adored cooking in the Le Creuset Signature Round Casserole (kindly lent to us so that we could give it a test drive ; ). Add the wine, cover and cook for between two and two and a half hours, peeking every now and then to see that the pot has not run dry. If it has, add a splash of boiling water, which will make a great gravy.
At about the two-hour mark, lift the lid and see if the lamb is fork-tender. If not, put it back in the oven for a further 30 minutes.
With 10 minutes to go, add the olives. Serve on hot creamy polenta made according to package instructions (we substituted chicken stock for the water and finished it with butter for a rich, creamy texture).