Xot Rostit Mallorquí

Xot rostit is Mallorcan: young lamb roasted for Easter, cut with small pockets of garlic and sobrassada, then set over potatoes with wine or brandy in the tray. That sobrassada is what keeps it from being just another roast lamb. It melts into the meat, stains the juices a quiet pimentón red, and gives the potatoes the rich, soft edges people pick at before the platter reaches the table.

The method that decides it is simple. Put the sobrassada inside the lamb, not smeared thickly on top. On the surface it burns before the meat is tender; tucked into small cuts with garlic, it melts slowly and seasons from within. Start hot to wake the fat, then lower the oven and baste. The roast should go glossy and deep, never dry.

No hace falta haber pisado Mallorca. You don't need to have set foot on the island. If you can't find xot, buy a small bone-in lamb shoulder from a good butcher, not old mutton. If you can't find sobrassada de Mallorca, use Menorcan sobrasada first, or a soft Spanish cooking chorizo skinned and mashed with a spoon of olive oil; it will taste more garlicky and less melting, but it keeps the pimentón-fat logic of the dish.

I write this one with shoulder because it forgives a home oven and gives you tender meat without fuss. The note in my Margin says: sobrassada dins, no damunt, inside, not on top. Follow that and the basting, and siempre sale, si lo sigues.