Osso buco is an elegant and easy recipe for entertaining or that special family meal. Brown the shanks, sauté the vegetables and then slow cook in wine for a delicious fall-off-the-bone treat.
Ingredients
- 4 cross cut veal shanks 1.5 to 2
- Salt and pepper to season
- Flour for dusting
- Olive oil for browning
- 8 cloves of garlic roughly chopped
- 1 cup chopped onion
- 1 cup chopped celery
- 1 cup peeled and chopped carrots
- 2 cups dry red wine such as Barbaresco, Barolo, Zinfindel or Cabernet Sauvignon
- 2 cups veal or chicken stock
- 2 bay leaves
- 3 cloves garlic (optional)
- Zest from 1 lemon (optional)
- Enough fresh parsley to make ¼ cup chopped parsley (a couple good sized handfuls)
Directions
- 1Heat oven to 400 degrees. Season the meat on all sides with salt and pepper. Dust shanks with flour, coating all sides and then dusting off the excess. Heat an oven-proof pan on medium heat, preferably a cast iron and enamel dutch oven. Pour a few tablespoons of olive oil in the bottom of the pan and carefully brown the shanks, taking care not to burn them. The browning is key to creating flavor in the meat and in the final sauce. Remove shanks from the pan and cover with foil to keep warm.
- 2Add more olive oil to the pan and sauté garlic and vegetables until they soften and begin to brown.
- 3Add red wine and stir, scraping the bottom of the pan to release the brown bits. Return the shanks to the pan and add stock and bay leaves. Cover the pan and bake until the meat begins to fall off the bone, about 1½ hours.
- 4Remove the shanks from the pot and keep warm. Stir the bottom of the pot to release any bits stuck to the bottom. Strain the sauce through a strainer lined with cheese cloth. Discard vegetables and bits that you catch in the strainer. Skim off any fat floating on top of the remaining sauce. You can pour the sauce directly on the veal shanks. Alternatively, if the sauce is thin, you can put it back into the pot and cook it on high to concentrate and thicken.
- 5To make the optional gremolata, chop the garlic in a food processor, then add lemon zest and parsley and whirl again. Or chop by hand.
- 6Serve shanks with a bit of sauce and pass a bowl of gremolata to garnish.
