Ossobuco PET

[Mikey]

Been trying to clear stuff out of the freezer lately, and I had some veal shanks that I bought on sale months ago. The kids came home for the weekend, so I figured tonight would be a good time to use them up because everybody here loves some ossobuco.

Actually, I had four pieces in the freezer and I picked up a couple more at the store. Can you pick out the fresh ones?




Tied them with some string so they would hold together better after cooking for a couple of hours.




Here's the sofrito starting to cook. Onions, celery and carrots form the basis for many Italian dishes. In France they call it mirepoix.




After 12 minutes or so and adding some garlic and lemon peel it's just about ready to set aside.




The meat gets dredged in flour and browned on both sides.




After adding tomatoes, white wine, broth, parsley, thyme and bayleaves it's ready for the oven.




After couple of hours in the oven and reducing the sauce...ready to eat with some risotto al funghi.

[smackaholic]

your description has these red Xs i'm staring at at work looking kinda tasty.

[Mikey]

Funny, my office has photobucket filtered out too (and YouTube).

I've made it maybe 4 or 5 times. You learn a little something new almost every time with a recipe like this. It was the best batch yet.

[indyfrisco]

That looks damn good. Nice PET.

[Mikey]

Unfortunately I forgot to take pics when I first pulled it out of the oven. The meat was "like buttah" but I needed to transfer it to the warming oven while I cooked the sauce down for a good 10 - 15 minutes. Last time I made it the sauce was a little thin. This time I reduced it more so it came out thicker and was incredibly rich. Like I said, you learn a little each time.

This batch was as good as a $30.00 entree I had last year at one of the top restaurants in San Diego's Little Italy.

[Mikey]

Heating up the leftovers for lunch right now...

[smackaholic]

that kinda shit probably just gets better each time you reheat it.

no wonder your such a fat bastard.

[Mikey]

Cooked up a couple of small veal shoulder roasts last week with virtually the same recipe (added mushrooms) and it was also very good. A lot cheaper too.

[socal]

Nice PET, Mikey.

[Mikey]

Pretty close to the recipe I use, only the veal is braised in a large sauté instead of a crock pot. Thing is, I like to lay them down flat and you'd have a hard time fitting many pieces flat in a crock pot. Also, I don't know if it makes a difference to simmer in a wide, flat pan vs. slow cooking in a deeper pot. Cooks to very tender in a couple of hours, but then you have to reduce the sauce by a bit. I imagine that you would need to reduce the sauce from the crockpot as well unless you want it real thin.

[Mikey]

The marrow is the best part, sort of like getting to the artichoke heart. Pretty rich, though. Some people don't like it. And it doesn't come out if you cook them flat, at least using the "conventional" braising method. Maybe if you slow cook it for 10 hours the stuff might dissolve or something.

[mvscal]

Finally got around to making this last night. Holy fucking shit fire! That was incredible. Like you, I followed Hazan's recipe straight out of the book. It's one of those dishes that looks gorgeous at every stage of the preparation. You're cooking and you know this one is getting knocked out the park.

The marrow and other gelatinous bits makes the sauce rich and smooth as silk. The only thing I would do differently next time (and there will be a next time) is my choice of sides. I went with a semi- purée of white beans, garlic and sage. It was OK. I'll be setting these bad boys on top of a pile of garlic-Parmesan mashed potatoes next time, though.

I'm also thinking about giving it a French spin by using red wine and replacing the tomatoes with some kind of mushroom medley.

[Mikey]

One of my favorite recipes, and now that the weather is cooling off it's getting close to the time to fire up the oven again.

Marcella Hazan's (RIP) recipe is pretty much perfect the way it is but it never hurts to experiment. A restaurant close to where I live makes an excellent Ossobucco that incorporates zucchini in the sauce.

I've also seen it served with polenta for a starch. As much as I love a good garlic mashed potato I'm not sure about serving the meat on top of a pile of them. Even though pretty tender, as you're cutting the meat up it seems like you'd be also mixing the potatoes with the sauce. To me mashed potatoes excel with the sauce on them but not mixed in with them. A fine point maybe, but you're in danger of ending up with a potato sauce instead of potatoes and sauce. Maybe serve the potatoes next to the meat with sauce over the whole thing.

[mvscal]

Marcella Hazan's (RIP)

RIP.