By mint salsa, I mean something along the lines of an Italian salsa verde, but with that greenness in the main provided by finely chopped mint. We’ve grown to think there’s something shameful in mint sauce, as if in cooking lamb the only worthy flavourings or accompaniments could be garlic and rosemary. Now, I still love mint sauce the way my mother made it, finely chopping the herb, then stirring in sugar and vinegar; this new-age take on it attempts to preserve what was so wonderful about it, the fresh sprightliness and piquancy, but bring to it a more modulated, modern tone.
With the lamb and this sauce, I tend to make – and we all have our own lazily unthinking, push-button repertoire – the new season’s roast vegetables. The sour astringency of the salsa, indeed, goes so well with the sweet nubbliness of the baby veg, that I sometimes leave the lamb out of the equation altogether: just bake the vegetables and drizzle the herbal, acerbic green oil over, adding perhaps some more freshly chopped mint on top.
2 racks of lamb, approx. 8 cutlets on each rack
30g fresh mint (or 2 supermarket packets)
30g fresh flat-leaf parsley
16 cornichons (baby gherkins)
4 teaspoons capers
200ml extra virgin olive oil
4 teaspoons white wine vinegar, or to taste
pinch caster sugar
ground black pepper
Maldon salt
Preheat the oven to 210°C/gas mark 7. Make sure the lamb is out of the fridge and well on its way to becoming room temperature; if still fridge-cold when they go into the oven add about 7 minutes’ extra cooking time.
Destalk the herbs and whizz them in a food processor until they are chopped, then add the cornichons and capers and whizz again. Pour the oil down the funnel, and then add the vinegar and sugar to taste, and season with the black pepper and the salt.
Score the lamb fat, by using a sharp knife to draw diagonal lines, this way and that, about a couple of centimetres apart and, using a pastry brush, paint the fat with a coating of the mint sauce, saving the rest to serve with the lamb. Arrange the racks in an intertwining arch, and put them into a tin and thence into the oven to roast for about 20 minutes, depending on size.
Serves 4–6.