Favourite Recipes: Milanese-style Osso Buco

Milanese-style Osso Buco

This is adapted from an Antionio Carluccio cookbook (can't recall which, though the recipe is on pg 130 of it).

It's richly flavoured, and is much better after a reheat when the flavours have integrated fully.

Osso Buco[1] are cross sections cut from veal leg bones. So they're disc-shapes, a few centemeters thick, with meat surrounding the central bone. He reccomends getting a butcher to cut the pieces "from the middle of the skin where the bone is rounded on both sides and the meat is dense".

• osso buco (veal marrow-bone), 4 x 4cm thick pieces
  
• seasoned plain flour, for dusting
  
• olive oil, 4 tbsp
  
• small onion, 1, diced
  
• peeled roma tomatoes, 800g can, strained of half their juices
  
• juice of 1 large orange, and finely grated rind of ½ orange
  
• dry red wine, 150ml
  
• salt and pepper to taste
  
• Gremolata
  • flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped, 4 tbsp
    
  • finely grated lemon zest, 1 tbsp
    
  • small garlic clove, 1, crushed

• Frying the osso buco
  • Dust the osso buco with seasoned flour.
    
  • Heat the olive oil in a cast-iron casserole
    
  • Fry the osso buco two at a time on both sides
    taking care not to damage the marrow in the centre of the bone or allow it to fall out.
    
  • Remove the osso bucco from the casserole and put to one side.
• The rest of the prep before simmering
  • In the same oil, fry the onion until transparent
    
  • Add the tomatoes, and cook for five minutes, breaking them up
    in the casserole with a wooden spoon while cooking.
    Keep the heat up high so that the tomatoes reduce.
    
  • Add the orange juice, the grated rind and the wine.
    Continue to cook fast.
    
  • Return the osso buco to the sauce.
    
  • Season the sauce with salt and pepper.
• Simmer
  • Reduce the heat, cover the casserole and simmer for 1-1/2 hours
    until the meat has begun to come away from the bone.
• Make the gremolata
  • simply mix the ingredients together.
• Sprinkle each osso buco portion with gremolata, and serve with a risotto.

---

[1]It seems that 'osso buco' is actually the name of the dish, and 'veal shanks' are the proper name for the cut of meat, even though they seem to be commonly referred to as 'osso buco'.