Delicious, tasty and festive
The classic dish from northern Italy made easy
When I was a little girl in New York, our house always had specially chosen dishes for special occasions . As the grandchild of northern Italian immigrants who worked hard in restaurants dotted around Manhattan, I was spoiled with delicious and healthy food from birth. Money was often tight, but when there was an opportunity to celebrate, the last pennies would be scraped together to buy the finest ingredients for the special meal. Although the apartments were all very small and the kitchens were often tiny, in this northern Italian part of Manhattan people cooked with a lot of passion and real delicacies were produced.
A classic example of this is osso buco. Osso Buco has its origins in Lombardy, the region east of Piedmont. However, today this dish is also served all over Italy. The meat used for osso buco comes from either veal or beef. It is taken from the tibia and is mostly considered a secondary incision. The name derives from the cross cut of the tibia, which has a bone in its center with a hole filled with bone marrow. Osso buco literally means "bone with a hole".
The bone marrow becomes very tender and supple due to the slow cooking and is traditionally removed from the knuckle at the end of the meal. It tastes delicious on a piece of bread. At home, my father always tried to distract us and then eat the marrow of our knuckles.
The Italians have the rare gift of conjuring up a fantastic meal from any part of the veal or beef. It stems from not being able to afford the more expensive meat cuts and having to be very imaginative with what you could afford. Personally, I have prepared this classic osso buco with both veal and lamb knuckle. It tastes very different, but always excellent.
The special thing about this dish is that the long simmering means that all the ingredients harmonize perfectly with each other. The combination between the veal and the lemon rind with the wine and the vegetables as a basis is particularly striking. The fat and marrow of the veal gives it that rich flavor, which is further enhanced by the lemon rind, which also provides a certain freshness.
The knuckle must be cooked very slowly and for a very long time in order to be very tender in the end. To shorten the cooking time, the Piedmontese have the butcher cut the knuckles very thinly, almost like a chop. Just ask your butcher about it, because the thicker the cut, the longer the knuckle has to simmer to become tender.
For me, the perfect wine for osso buco is a classic, elegant Barbaresco. The wine's soft tannins complement the rich meat perfectly and give this dish the right "kick".
Another tip for you:
If you go to the butcher and want to buy osso buco, always ask your butcher to show you both sides of the knuckle. If the bone is much larger on one side than the other, it means there's almost no meat on the shank. Do not accept this and have your butcher cut a new knuckle.
Here is the recipe for 4 people:
Start with the gremolata , which is important to the flavor of the dish.
For this you need:
a handful of flat-leaf parsley
2 cloves of garlic
1 unwaxed lemon
Chop the parsley and garlic and add the lemon rind. Mix everything together well and set aside.
For the osso buco you will need:
4 veal knuckles
2 celery perennials
2 carrots
1 onion
2 cloves of garlic
Half a liter of dry white wine
1 teaspoon tomato paste
salt and pepper
Finely chop the celery, carrots, onion and garlic and set aside.
Make a cut in the edge of the veal shanks with a sharp knife. This will prevent the knuckles from contracting under the heat in the pan. Lightly bread the shanks in flour and sear them briefly for a minute on each side. Remove the knuckles from the pan and set them aside.
Now add the chopped vegetables to the hot oil in the pan. Cook the vegetables on medium heat for about 2 minutes. Then deglaze the whole thing with half a liter of dry white wine.
Bring the wine to a boil and return the knuckles to the pan. Simmer the knuckles over medium heat for at least 2 hours. Add more wine if necessary.
Before removing the knuckles from the pan, season with salt and pepper and mix in the gremolata. Serve the knuckles with polenta or rice.
The Ossobuco dish is complemented very well by a Barbaresco. With its balance and elegance, it is the perfect partner.
