Pignata di Pecora alla Lucana

Ingredients

• 1.4 kg mutton shoulder or bone-in leg, bone-in, grass-fed mutton — not young lamb
• 600 g potatoes, peeled and cut into large chunks
• 1 dried chilli, whole or coarsely crumbled
• 1 small handful wild fennel fronds, dried; or the feathery tops if fresh
• 2 bay leaves
• 200 ml Aglianico wine, one cup
• 1 tsp fine salt
• For the seal
• 150 g plain flour, mixed with water to a stiff paste
• 80 ml water, cold, added gradually to flour to form paste

Method

1. 1
   Heat the oven to 140 °C. Place the mutton into the pignata — or a deep, lidded terracotta vessel — without browning. Tuck the potatoes around the meat. Add the dried chilli, wild fennel, and bay leaves. Season with salt. Pour the Aglianico over everything. The vessel should be no more than three-quarters full to allow internal steam to build.
2. 2
   Mix the flour and water to a stiff, pliable paste. Press it firmly around the join between the lid and the rim of the pignata, sealing the vessel completely — no gap, no crack. Alternatively, press two tight layers of foil over the lid and crimp hard at the edges. This seal is where the dish lives or dies: the internal steam is the only cooking medium, and any escape of vapour flattens the braise to nothing.
3. 3
   Set the sealed pignata in the low oven for a minimum of 4 hours 30 minutes, undisturbed. Do not open, lift the lid, or test during cooking. The seal must remain intact for the full duration.
4. 4
   After 4 hours 30 minutes, bring the pignata to the table sealed. Break the flour crust or lift the foil at the table. A dense, aromatic cloud of mutton fat, wild fennel, and wine should rise immediately. The mutton must be falling from the bone; the potatoes should have absorbed the braising fat and collapsed at the edges. If the meat still holds structure on the bone, reseal and return for a further 30 minutes.