The additional perk of this spectacular Easter dinner is that the soup and dessert are also perfect for Passover. I had recently read about a luscious chocolate mousse that used olive oil instead of butter or cream but could not trace it. But just before I started to develop the recipe, I finally found one in Joan Nathan’s appealing new book Quiches, Kugels, and Couscous. Unless you actually know it is there, the olive oil is undetectable – the mousse is just rich and silky.
Adapt the carrot soup for Passover by omitting the dandelion pesto. Instead cook some carrot rounds in orange juice; add a little hot sauce for garnish or sprinkle on chives. The spectacular lamb dish is all about Easter and can only be adapted to Passover if you use a lamb shoulder instead of a leg and omit the anchovies. (It would be boned and prepared the same way.)
