Lamb Shoulder with Balsamic Tomatoes & Olives

I didn't make the dish above, BUT I did eat it. (*@*)

Since that fateful night in Cupra, I have been trying to recreate this dish...unsuccessfully. The last attempt was delicious, but still didn't come close to the perfection above. Maybe it was the full moon, maybe it was the candlelit dinner on the terrace of a medieval castle, maybe it was the cat that was ready to pounce on my dish...

maybe it was just pure magic.

In this attempt, I used a cheaper cut of lamb, which is about $4.99/lb, rather than the lamb chop which is $14.99/lb. If you can afford the chops, it's worth a splurge, but the lamb shoulders did just fine.

Ingredients

4 pieces lamb shoulder

2 sprigs of rosemary, roughly chopped

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 tablespoon of good balsamic vinegar

1 tablespoon of good olive oil

1 teaspoon of salt

1 teaspoon of fresh ground black pepper

1 cup of cherry tomatoes, halved

1/4 cup of olives, preferable castelvetrano & cerignola, pitted and halved

1 shallot, sliced

1 tablespoon of cooking olive oil

1. Marinate the lamb shoulder, in a plastic bag, with rosemary, garlic, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
2. Take out the lamb and let it come to room temperature. About 30 minutes
3. Heat a skillet or sautee pan, with 1 tablespoon of olive oil, just until smoking.
4. Take out the lamb, reserve marinade. Sear lamb on each side for 4 minutes, for medium rare.
5. Transfer lamb to a plate, keep warm.
6. Using the same pan, sautee shallots and tomatoes until the tomatoes start to soften. Add the reserved marinade to pan.
7. To keep the shallots from over cooking, you can move them to one side of the pan and move away from heat. Place the tomotes directly on the heat.
8. Add the olives and let slightly brown. Two minutes.
   
9. Add the tomato, olive, shallot mixture on top of the lamb and serve.