Ossobucco – slowly cooked veal shank

Ossobucco, bone with a hole, is one of the many classic Italian recipes that take more patience than skill. The Milanese version has you coating the meat with flour and adding gremolata, a mixture of parsley and grated lemon rind.

Last week I went to the butcher’s in Mirepoix for some slices of cooked ham. Once there, I saw lovely veal shanks and veal tail and I could not resist. The tail I used for a veal stock but here I will give you my recipe for “jarret de veau”.

First I dried the meat and removed some bone splinters, then I tied it up around the bone. My ages-old Marcella Hazan cookbook told me to find a shank with the bone in the middle, but the anatomy of calves is that the bone is on the side of the meat so you should tie them up prevent it from falling apart.

I had some vegetables from the market, carrot, celery stick, onion. I chopped that up with some garlic and set it aside.

I put a combination of butter and oil in a casserole and browned the meat on all sides. I put them aside and added some pepper and salt. In the remaining fat, I baked the vegetables until tender. Then I put the meat back, added a glass of white wine (or vermouth) and a tin of chopped tomatoes. I let this simmer for a while before putting in an oven at 150 °C for two hours, with the lid on.

Towards the end, I chopped some fresh parsley and sprinkled it over the meat.