Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl's Top 5 Ground Lamb Recipes

Lately I find myself buying ground lamb as often as I buy ground beef—I like the flavor, I like supporting local grass-pasturing lamb producers, and I like the flavor. I really like the flavor! Gamey, wine-y and sweet. I also find ground lamb more tender than ground beef, and my kids like it more. So in my house these days, meatballs are a mix of lamb and pork. That's a little odd, I admit, but it works for us, and I strongly believe if more people experimented with lamb more people would love it. What do I do with it? Glad you asked! Here are my top 5 ground lamb recipes!

(credit: finecooking.com)

Quick Lamb Fennel Sugo
Recipe

The licorice flavors of fennel go beautifully with lamb, and this quick tomato sauce with ground lamb is wonderful on pasta, great on risotto, and beautiful on oatmeal—or as we call it at night, oat risotto.

(credit: André Baranowski/saveur.com)

Lamb Burger
Recipe

All the hot restaurants have lamb burgers these days. They're easy to do, and use up the scraps from the fancy expensive lamb chops. But I just love them! They're like a gyros with no mystery ingredients. Serve in a bun, or next to a big Greek salad.

(credit: Annabelle Breakey/Getty Images)

Lamb Kebab
Recipe

There's a reason ground lamb is the fast-food of the whole Eastern Mediterranean, from Greece to Turkey to Egypt. It's good and hard to mess up. Food & Wine magazine has a lovely one with pine nuts and tahini. Serve with a dark Zinfandel wine and some store-bought tabbouli for a very nice fast fancy dinner.

(credit: thekitchn.com)

Lamb Meatballs With Lemon sauce
Recipe

I love stuffed grape leaves. I just adore them. They're way to fussy for me to make though. I did it once and it took all day. So good. But you can make them without the grape-leaf wrapping in a tenth the time, and serve them with a lemon sauce that's a lot like the traditional Greek avogolemono. I love this recipe from the Kitchn. It's easy and quite spectacular. I'd serve with a high-acid traditional European table wine, like a Grenache.

(credit: Michael Cogliantry/Getty Images)

Lamb Ragu
Recipe

Lamb ragu. It's the easiest and best thing to do! You're basically cooking lamb in tomato sauce, with garlic, herbs and paprika. A lot of local restaurants have cult followings for their lamb ragu. You can do this yourself! It's easy and good. Serve on pasta or just throw it into a bun for a new "Sloppy Joe"!