Ossobuco is one of those dishes I almost never make at home. I love to order it in a restaurant, but rarely do enough ahead of time planning to cook it myself
And by ahead of time planning I mean getting to a butcher that actually has ossobuco for sale. This used to be an easy thing to do, back in the day when there were butchers all over the place. When I first moved into the Monti neighborhood there were five butcher shops, one of which specialized in only horse meat. (I kid you not) Today? There is only one butcher left. Much has to do with rising rents, and then there’s also competition from supermarkets. It’s a sad, sad state of affairs.
And while my butcher is very good, he’s also very expensive. (I think that’s why he is the only one to survive). Also, if I do want something like ossobuco, I usually have to pre order it to make sure he has it.
Instead, these days, I buy most of my meat at the weekly Farmer’s Market. But up until last week I’d never seen ossobuco. That is because I tend to go on the late side (2pm) when the market is blissfully uncrowded but also – unfortunately – sold out of things like the much sought after ossobuco.
This past Sunday as I was coming back in to Rome from an early landing at Fiumicino, Domenico and I stopped by the market just as they were opening. And low and behold, a big pile-o-ossobuco greeted me as I walked through the door.
Ossobuco is dead simple to make (once you’ve managed to track down the ossobuco that is). It’s an incredibly rich cut of meat and a little goes a long way. My thinking with ossobuco is that the sauce is one of the main parts of this dish.
With that in mind I use more odori, or vegetables, than most recipes call for. I love the slowly cooked mix of onions, carrots and other vegetables along side the buttery soft meat. This time around I didn’t have any celery (forgot!) but amply made up for that lack by a big fat leek and a bulb of fennel.
The final touch is always gremolato, a chopped up mix of lemon peel and parsley that is added at the last minute.
Most recipes usually call for 2 pieces of ossobuco per person. Mine calls for one. Because really, once you’ve filled up everyone’s plate with loads of rich sauce and a slice or two of crusty bread (or even better, mashed potatoes) I think that’s plenty.
ossobuco
Prep
Cook
Total
Yield 4
Ingredients
- 4 1-inch thick slices of ossobuco
- 4 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 tablespoons butter
- flour
- salt, pepper
- 1 large onion
- 1 large carrot
- 1 large leek
- 1 large fennel bulb
- 1 cup white wine
- zest from one untreated lemon
- small bunch of parsley
Instructions
- Season the ossobuco with salt and pepper and let sit for about 20 minutes.
- In the meantime, chop the vegetables. I usually just put everything into the food processor. I like it chopped roughly, but pretty fine, so that makes the job go much more quickly.
- Heat the olive oil and butter in a pan large enough to hold all the meat and the vegetables.
- Dredge the ossobuco in flour, and add to pan. Brown well, on both sides. And by brown well, I mean really brown well. Do not skimp on this part. Those rich, dark brown bits of caramelized meat is what will give the rest of the dish its rich, deep taste.
- Remove the ossobuco and place aside on a plate.
- Add all the vegetables to the pan. Using a wooden spoon, scrape up the browned bits of meat and flour. Let the vegetables cook, until softened. About 10 minutes. Season with salt.
- Add the meat, and any juices, back to the pan, pushing aside the vegetables to make room.
- Add the wine, and let simmer for about 4 minutes. Cover the pan and let cook for about 15 minutes, then check to see if it’s too dry. If so, add about a cup of water, cover again, and let cook very slowly for about an hour.
- Chop the lemon zest and parsley finely, then add to the ossobuco at the last minute. You don't have to stir it in (It will be hard to do so) but make sure you've managed to get some gremolato on each piece.
- Serve each guest a piece of ossobuco with the sauce. Of course the best way to enjoy the sauce is along with a big mound of buttery mashed potatoes.
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Yummy! I make it with shanks from the local buffalo farm. Since American bison are huge one shank will do. I make it in the crock pot – using a similar technique to yours. Coming home after a long day to Ossobuco is wonderful.
Wow, buffalo ossobuco. Are they as fatty and rich as beef? Or a bit leaner?
Hi Elizabeth! I’m going to Paris on Friday so I’m on a tea and whole wheat bread diet! Reading your blog with all the wonderful pictures is bad, vary bad! Thank you for all my psychic pleasure. Love, Kathy
Elizabeth, are these veal or beef shanks?
I used to make the dish pretty regularly but, as you noted, this cut of meat is hard to find and, when found, tends to be expensive. I also made this dish with garbanzo beans, lots of cilantro and turmeric for a more Middle Eastern flavor.
In Italy there is something in between, called vitallone, which is somewhere between veal and beef. Your Middle Eastern version sounds delish
Making this tonite, but opted for a slow cooker…let’s see how it turns out.
Great stuff!
By the way “odori” is more or less the “aromatic herbs” that you add to your food (basil, parsley and the like…sometime a stalk of celery).
vegetables that are served on the side or that make up a sauce are not really “odori”.
Do they still give free “odori” at the vegetable shops in Rome? i thought that was a great perk of living there, because you only get a little to dress up your food…for free that is!
and you don’t have to buy more than you need…
Glad to hear you made it. But do you brown everything first in a pan before you put it in a slow cooker? My ‘odori’ are just an over abundance of aromatics. I take them to extremes! 🙂
Yes i flour the shanks (both sides) and then brown them in butter (both sides) and then I drop them in the slow cooker over chopped celery, onions, carrots and a turnip. Sometimes i add tomatoes, sometimes i don’t.
if I am not adding the tomatoes, i add bay leaves and white wine.
8hrs on low and it comes out super tender, but i always under salt this dish…it’s so beefy that it really needs a ton of seasoning.
i use beef shanks (cheap) but veal shanks are probably even better
I live in Ohio and right now our spring weather is very fickle! Warm and sunny last weekend, cold and snowy on Tuesday. I was at the grocery store and saw some beef shanks. They looked just like your ossobuco photos so I grabbed them and made ossobuco for dinner last night. Perfect for a chilly evening. And those veggies piled on top of buttery mashed potatoes…mmmmmmmmm! Heaven.
That was fate! Glad to hear you made it so quickly and that it turned out well.
There seem to be 2 different OssoBuco regional versions. This one with carrots and my preferred recipe which is just tomato but always with gremolata. I’ve made it many times and always wonder how something so simple can taste so absolutely exquisite.
I know a couple of places near me where I can buy this cut of veal though expensive. More readily available is pork OssoBuco which I find just as good and a quarter of the price.
I’ve never tried pork ossobuco, but always willing to try anything having to do with a pig.
Great comments, they always help when making a new recipe. Thanks.
Did anyone mention using Lamb shanks? I didn’t see that, maybe I missed it–anyway, I use the same vegetables (odori! great word) as you but with lamb–for my version of this–always lots of lamb available here in Hawaii for some reason.
Yikes, I’m almost out of archives…..darn it—It’s really been fun “bingeing” on them this last 8 months or so—:).
The photos have gotten progressively better but not the writing–because it’s been excellent from the start! I really mean that, it’s good stuff.
In Italy lamb is usually eaten much much younger than in the rest of the world, so that the osso buco cut, which is a cross section of the leg, is usually never an option. If you are cooking an entire leg, it usually is roasted, and is still attached to at least half of the rest of the animal.
Thank you so much for your kind words about my work!! That means so much. I do always try to improve my photographic skills, and am in fact about to upgrade to a new camera for my next book project.