Recipe: Osso Bucco Recipe »
This Italian beef ossobucco recipe is a wonderful cosy, winter meal and perfect for a slow cook weekend. The meat is braised until beautifully tender and you can cook this in the oven or stovetop. This Osso Bucco is also perfect for pairing with risotto Milanese and idea; for when you want a simple, warming and satisfying dish and have time for a slow braise. It is also a great make-ahead recipe.
About Osso Bucco
Ossobuco alla Milanese comes from the Lombardy region in the north of Italy and originated in Milan in the 19th century. The name "osso buco" translates to "bone with a hole" in the local Milanese dialect.
What meat cut is Osso Bucco (or osso bucco or ossobuco)? Ossobucco is a shank that is cut across. It's most commonly veal but sometimes beef or pork. The hole in the meat is the marrow bone that cooks down until creamy and delicious.
Why is osso buco so expensive to eat? Like most secondary cuts, it has become popular in the last decade and is now an expensive cut!
There are two types of Milanese ossobuccos - ones made with tomato paste and carrot and ones without (Osso Buco Bianco Milanese). The ones with tomato and red wine have a deep rich colour while the Osso Buco Bianco Milanese has a much paler, creamy colour. Some swear that osso buco should never be made with tomato, while other argue the other way (and I've learnt never get in the middle of an argument with Italians about which way is best haha!). I already have another ossobucco recipe here that is a lot more tomatoey but I was making risotto Milanese and really wanted to make ossobucco to go with it.
I tried hard to get veal ossobucco but it isn't easy to get at the moment (veal is usually a spring item) so the best I could get was a yearling beef osso bucco. These were around 380g/13.4ozs per ossobucco (as opposed to veal which is around 300g/10.6ozs). The only thing is that beef ossobucco takes longer to cook than veal and it is larger in size-sometimes it's up to 500g/1.1lbs per ossobucco.
I have used red and white wine for osso bucco. I like both but it depends on the colour that you want your osso bucco to have. I actually love the version without tomato paste and using white wine instead of red. But for these pictures I wanted a darker colour so I used tomato paste and white wine.
Ingredients for Ossobucco
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Osso bucco bones - try to get veal but yearling beef also works, it just takes longer to cook.
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Plain all purpose flour - to dredge the ossobucco in. The flour also gently thickens the sauce while it is cooking. You can also use a gluten free flour if you are a GF eater.
- Olive oil or butter - you can use all butter or all olive oil too.
- White or red wine - Red wine (in combination with tomato) produces a deeper coloured and more flavour forward ossobucco. Using white wine will result in a paler shade, almost an orange colour to your ossobucco.
- Onion - I used a brown onion, peeled and finely chopped in my soffritto.
- Carrot and celery, peeled and finely chopped. Onion, carrot and celery make up a soffritto or flavour base for many Italian dishes. If you want to make a creamy ossobucco you can omit the carrot and just use onion and celery. Make sure that your soffritto is finely chopped.
- Chicken stock - this is the base for the sauce. You can also use beef or vegetable stock. Beef will make it richer while vegetable will make it lighter.
- Tomato paste - this is optional and if you want a gutsier, fuller flavoured ossobucco add this. But if you want a creamy ossobucco then omit this.
- Rosemary - a fresh sprig of rosemary adds a really lovely flavour especially for a white osso bucco or Osso Buco Bianco.
- Parsley, leaves only. I like using flat leaf or Continental parsley
- Lemon zest - finely and freshly grated from the lemon. Use a zester tool for this, I use this zester which is less than half the price of a microplane and works just as well.
- 1/2-1 garlic clove, finely grated
Tips For Making Osso Bucco
1 - Many people wrap kitchen string around the osso bucco to help keep it together. It isn't strictly necessary although ossobucco does tend to fall apart when you lift it so the string just helps to keep it together so I always do this step.
2 - Other people like to make three cuts along the outer circumference of the ossobucco so that it doesn't curl up when cooked.
3 - I serve ossobucco with a demitasse spoon so that people can dig the marrow out.You can also buy specific marrow spoons! If you or anyone you know loves bone marrow toast it's a nice gift to buy someone.
4 - I mentioned two types of osso bucco, one with tomato and one without. The one without is called "white" aka Osso Buco Bianco Milanese. It was creamier and milder in flavour but I absolutely loved it with the risotto Milanese. I definitely recommend trying it. To make this, just omit the celery, carrot and tomato paste and use white wine but definitely don't forget the gremolata for the creamier version as it is milder in flavour.
5 - Be very careful when lifting your osso bucco onto a plate. It will be so tender and soft that it will fall apart so I like to keep it as a single layer in the pan and use a wide silicon turner that can fit the whole ossobucco to lift it up with the aid of tongs to secure it.
6 - Don't rush this ossobucco. It needs time to cook down until fall-apart soft. There's nothing worse than serving up a tough ossobucco (ok there is, but you know what I mean!). If your ossobucos are bigger than the ones I've specified you will need more time. I actually recommend cooking them the day before and then refrigerating them (I put the whole pan in the fridge, once cooled off). Then skim the fat off, gently remove them and blend the sauce and then gently reheat, adding a little more water to the pan to thin the sauce out.
7 - Serve this with risotto Milanese (recipe to come tomorrow!). My recipe for osso bucco with polenta is here. You can also serve it with rice or pasta.
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