Cavatelli with lamb sausage and spinach

I haven't made it to an Easter at my parents in a while. Since the holiday is on a Sunday and you generally don't get the following Monday off, it makes it hard to be at my parents for dinner,  drive 5-7 hours and still make it to work the next morning. I was so excited when my boss gave us the day off for Good Friday and on my first day on the job! We were able to leave NY early and get to see my family an extra day. My mother even arranged Easter to begin as a brunch so that we would see everyone! We decided that we had to leave by two o'clock so that we wouldn't be getting home too late. This meant that we were going to miss the final dinner item - fresh cavatelli in home made sauce with sausages and meatballs. Luckily, I got my mom to pack me up a container of sauce and meat with some of the uncooked pasta before we left.

Once home we were too full and tired to make anything for dinner, but the next night I decided to switch things around. I had some lamb sausage in the freezer and since it is very traditional to eat lamb around Easter (and Passover which we celebrated a bit later in the week) I decided to use that for our dinner instead. This is an easy dish based on some thing I often make with chicken sausage, the lamb was amazing though! Flavorful little morsels between perfectly chewy bites of cavatelli gave the perfect savory bite. And we got to enjoy the sauce with some pasta another day!

Click through for the recipe

Easter Dinner - Roasted Leg of Lamb and Turkey Breast

I never pass up a holiday that I can cook for and Easter with the traditional foods that I grew up with is no exceptions. Although I have to admit I don't know if I follow many of our recipes too closely. I'd like to think that I have come up with a good version of my mother and grandmothers cooking but with my own set of ingredients. I have so much respect for my elders when I host a holiday dinner. There was always so much at our holiday spreads and it was always homemade! My easter was a bit smaller - only four of us turned out - but the spread was pretty impressive. One of the best parts of the dinner was the "drunk" girl roasted potatoes that my good friend Jema provided! Not only were they delicious but I loved the story.

This year I decided that I would butterfly my lamb roast and stuff it with a mint chimichurri - it was easy to assemble because my lamb roast had one of those elastic mesh "girdles" on it. I served it with bacon wrapped asparagus which is a decedent twist on the spring time classic. The turkey breast was obtained for free (yay!) due to some smart shopping and a great holiday special at Shoprite. Turkey breasts are such a great option for holidays - they take much less time than a whole turkey and still have all of the deliciously tender white meat that most people enjoy.

As always I brined my turkey, I find it hard to eat poultry prepared any other way recently as brining is just so easy and delicious (though it does take a bit of advance planning)

keep reading for the recipe for the turkey breast