Harissa, Tahini and Lamb Spaghetti from Flavour

By Erin Brown
Related Categories: Cookbook Confidential

“I never feel compelled to limit my pasta use to Italian recipes. This is the kind of recipe that comes together pretty easily and is a deeply comforting, spiced bowl of spaghetti with all the familiarity of a good meat and spag combo but with wildly different flavours. I don’t like using the word ‘fusion’ because it infers intent to purposely blend one thing into another . . . all I know is this kind of food tastes great to me and has notes that hit every spot on my satisfaction scale. If you feel like making your noodles a little more soupy, simply add more of the pasta cooking water or a light vegetable stock to increase the final volume of liquid.” Sabrina Ghayour, author of Flavour

Vegetable oil

1 large onion, finely chopped

6 fat garlic cloves, finely sliced

500g minced lamb

1 tablespoon garlic granules

1 tablespoon curry powder

1 tablespoon ground cumin

2 tablespoons rose harissa

3 tablespoons tahini

3 tablespoons light soy sauce

300g spaghetti

4 spring onions, finely sliced diagonally from root to tip

2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds

Maldon sea salt flakes and freshly

Ground black pepper

Place a large frying pan over a medium-high heat, add a drizzle of vegetable oil and fry the onion until soft and translucent, then stir in the garlic slices and cook for 2 minutes to soften. Add the minced lamb and immediately break it up as finely as possible to prevent it cooking in clumps, then stir in the garlic granules and dry spices until incorporated into the mince. Continue cooking the mince, stirring as you go. Add the harissa, tahini, soy sauce and salt and pepper and mix everything together until evenly combined.

Cook the spaghetti in a large saucepan of salted boiling water according to the packet instructions, then drain, reserving some of the cooking water.

Add the spaghetti to the lamb mixture and mix well, then pour in enough of the reserved pasta water to make the mixture a little soupy. Finally, add the spring onions and sesame seeds, mix together and serve scattered with the chopped coriander. This needs no accompaniment.