Ingredients

makes 12 to 14 pastries

　　1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

　　3 fat cloves garlic, peeled, crushed, and minced

　　1 small, dried red chile pepper, crushed, or 1/3 to 1/2 teaspoon dried chile flakes

　　1 1/2 pounds lamb, cut from the leg, finely minced

　　1 teaspoon fine sea salt

　　Freshly cracked pepper

　　1/3 cup sun-dried tomatoes, finely shredded, 2 tablespoons of its preserving oil retained

　　1/2 cup dried black olives, stones removed

　　2 teaspoons fennel seeds, roasted

　　1 pinch saffron threads, pan-roasted and dissolved in 2 tablespoons warm white wine

　　1 batch pecorino pastry (page 229)

　　

Step 1

In a sauté pan over a medium flame, warm the olive oil and soften the garlic for 1 minute, taking care not to let it color. Add the chile pepper and the lamb, sautéing the meat, sprinkling on the sea salt, and generously grinding over pepper.

　　

Step 2

Turn the mixture out into a bowl and add the sun-dried tomatoes, the olives, the fennel seeds, and the saffroned wine, tossing to combine the components.

　　

Step 3

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

　　

Step 4

Roll out the chilled and rested pastry to a thinness of 1/4 inch. Cut 6-inch circles from the dough and place a generous 2 tablespoons of the lamb over each one, mounding it up in the center.

　　

Step 5

Reroll the pastry and cut additional circles, placing one atop each of the circles already laid with the lamb. Fold the bottom circle up to cover the edges of the top circle, crimping, sealing, the impanade. Brush them with the sun-dried tomato preserving oil and bake them for 18 to 20 minutes or until they are deeply golden.

　　

Step 6

Remove the impanade to cool a very few minutes on racks before presenting them, still warm, with a good red wine.

　　A Taste of Southern Italy