1. Steam the green beans (or cooked in lightly salted boiling water), until bite tender. Drain and flash under the cold tap to stop the cooking process. Lay out on to kitchen paper to drain.
2. Place all remaining salad ingredients in a large bowl, grind over some black pepper and toss gently to combine. Cover and set aside.
3. Heat the oven to 200C. Line a shallow roasting dish with baking paper.
4. Cut the eggplant into about 2cm cubes and place in the roasting dish. Drizzle with oil and toss well to coat eggplant. Sprinkle over the thyme leaves and a little salt. Place in the oven and roast until soft and beginning to crisp around the edges, about 25 minutes.
5. Meanwhile, heat a large frying pan (or use barbecue grill), over a medium heat. Rub a dash of oil over lamb and place in frying pan. Cook for 3 minutes then turn over and cook a further 2 minutes for medium-rare lamb. Transfer lamb to a plate, season with salt and freshly ground black pepper and cover loosely with foil and a clean tea towel and leave to rest for 5 minutes.
6. To serve, toss green beans through the salad and place on a large serving platter. Slice the lamb, across the grain for tenderness, and arrange on top. Crumble ricotta through the roasted eggplant and scatter on top. Optional to taste, drizzle over a little extra virgin olive oil and a couple of squeezes of lemon juice.

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Method

Heat barbecue grill until hot.

Lamb

Rub lamb shortloin with a little oil and season. Place on the barbecue grill and grill for 4-5 minutes on each side. (Turn grill down a little if lamb is browning too quickly). Remove from the barbecue grill and place on a plate, cover with foil or baking paper and a tea towel and leave to rest for 10 minutes while you make the green pea mixture.

Green peas

Bring a saucepan of water to the boil. Add the garlic cloves and boil for 5 minutes. Add the peas and bring back to the boil. Drain and refresh under cold water, then drain again. Place green peas in the bowl of a food processor with the garlic, mint and basil. Process until you have a rough paste, drizzling in the lemon juice and olive oil through the feed tube. Season well.

To serve

Toast or grill the sourdough bread slices. Spread the green pea mixture over toasted bread slices. Thinly slice lamb across the grain and arrange a few slices on each one. Using a vegetable peeler, top with shavings of Parmesan and finish with mint leaves. Grind over some black pepper.  Drizzle each bruschetta with extra olive oil.

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Method

Brush the lamb with combined sesame oil and hoisin. Preheat a non-stick pan to moderately hot. Keep the heat at moderately high.

Cook one side of lamb until the first sign of moisture appears on the uncooked side, turn and cook other side. You may need to turn the meat three times so all sides are browned.

Test for doneness with tongs. Rare is soft when pressed, medium is springy and well done is very firm. Rest the lamb for a few minutes before serving. To serve, slice the lamb diagonally and serve on top of warm salad.

To make the salad

Cook the beans until just tender, toss with the butter, toasted walnuts, onion and coriander leaves, serve immediately.

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