Easter lunch made perfect with Mary Berry’s tender slow roast lamb recipe (2025)

This recipe puts a french twist on the classic roast dinner staple making it the perfect Easter Sunday lunch

If you're celebrating Easter Sunday with a roast dinner, Mary Berry has a recipe that's perfect for the occasion - which is just as good to eat all year round.

If you're in charge of cooking this weekend, her French roast lamb with ratatouille - a Provençal vegetable stew—adds a European twist to the traditional roast.

Best of all, it’s a easy to make, just pop everything into one roasting dish and let the oven do the work for four hours, leaving you with plenty of free time to relax or cook some side dishes.

As seen on her BBC 2 series Simple Comforts, Mary said: "This all-in-one slow roast with ratatouille-style vegetables is great for feeding a crowd. It does need a long time in the oven, but this means that the lamb is beautifully tender and you have time to pop to the pub or go for a walk."

Mary Berry's slow roast French lamb with ratatouille recipe

Ingredients

• 1 large leg or shoulder of lamb, about 2kg (4lb 6oz), bone in
• 2 garlic cloves, sliced into slivers
• 3 onions, thickly sliced
• 2 red peppers, deseeded and chopped into large pieces
• 1 large aubergine, chopped into large pieces
• 1 x 400g (14oz) tin of chopped tomatoes
• 300ml (10fl oz) beef or chicken stock
• 2 tbsp sun-dried tomato paste
• 1 tbsp chopped fresh thyme leaves
• 3 fresh bay leaves
• 1 tbsp honey
• 2 tsp paprika
• salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the rub:

• 2 tbsp chopped thyme leaves
• 1 tbsp paprika
• 2 tbsp olive oil

You will need:

• 1 large, deep roasting tin

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 220°C/200°C fan/Gas 7.
2. For the rub, put the thyme, paprika and oil in a small bowl, mix well and season. Make holes in the joint of lamb with a small sharp knife and spread the rub all over it. Insert the garlic slivers into the holes a2nd season the lamb with salt and pepper.
3. Put the lamb in a large roasting tin and add the onions around and underneath. Roast in the oven for about 40 minutes.
4. Lower the oven temperature to 160°C/140°C fan/Gas 3. Scatter the peppers and aubergine around the lamb.
5. Pour the tomatoes into a bowl, add the stock, sun-dried tomato paste, thyme, bay leaves and honey, then stir to combine. Pour all this into the roasting tin over the peppers and aubergine and stir, then sprinkle the paprika over the vegetables.
6. Cover the whole tin with foil and return to the oven to roast for about 4 hours until the lamb is tender and falling off the bone.
7. Shred the meat or carve into slices. Drain any fat from the top of the sauce and serve with the ratatouille vegetables alongside.

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