Osso Buco is an Italian recipe of Veal Shank accompanied by delicious creamy polenta made from cornmeal. This tender dish is a special-occasion braised classic. Am sure your friends and family will love it. Osso Buco means "hole of bone" because this marrow provides the rich flavor to the sauce. A marrow spoon, one of those long skinny spoons found in old sterling silverware sets, would come in handy with this dish, as the succulent shank marrow can be tricky to extract.
Osso Buco is a specialty of cross-cut veal shank braised with vegetables, white wine and broth. It is often garnished with gremolata made from parsley, lemon zest and garlic and traditionally was served with rice. In my recipe I propose to combine it with polenta.
Polenta is another delicious Italian dish which can now be found on many upscale-restaurant menus. Made with ground yellow or white cornmeal. Polenta can be served either sweet or savory. You can prepare it really simple way with just hot water and a spoon of butter, or spoil yourself and replace water with milk and adding any Italian cheese you like. Try this recipe and you will discover what I mean by DELICIOUS dinner!!!
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 120 minutes
Ingredients:
- 4 pieces of veal shank
- 250 g polenta (cornmeal)
- 500 ml vegetable broth
- 1 big onion - finely chopped
- 4-5 cloves of garlic - sliced
- 1 big carrot - chopped
- 1 celery - chopped
- 1 parsley root - chopped
- 1 leek - sliced
- 250 ml chopped tomatoes
- 200 ml white dry wine
- 5-6 Tbsp olive oil
- 4-5 Tbsp butter
- fresh thym - hashed
- Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method:
1. Pat dry with paper towels veal shanks to remove any excess moisture. Veal shanks will brown better when they are dry. Season with sea salt and pepper. In a heavy skillet heat butter and olive oil over moderately high heat and fry the veal shanks, adding some of the additional butter and oil if necessary. Fry veal until turning gold brown, approximately 10 minutes.
2. Add onion, garlic, carrot, celery, parsley root and leek to the veal. Add white wine and vegetable broth.
3. Keep cooking for another 10 minutes. Then add thym, chopped tomatoes, sea salt and pepper. Stir well and keep cooking for another 40 minutes, covered with a lid.
4. Braise the mixture and move to the baking dish in the middle of a preheated to 170 C oven for another 60 minutes or until the veal is tender.
5. Serve with polenta prepared from cornmeal and mixed with hot water and 2 Tbsp of butter. Season with salt and pepper.
ENJOY!!!
