Osso Bucco

Osso Bucco recipe from the southern region of Italy.

Hey gluten-free chefs, I am sharing one of my favourite Italian recipes with you; Osso Bucco.

I had the pleasure of trying this dish for the first time in a then famous Italian restaurant in Melbourne some years ago. It was a well-known restaurant in the back lanes of the city, where people in the hospitality industry knew that this was the place to go for an authentic Italian meal. It was tucked away up some rickety steps, and the restaurant looked like an oversized dining room of someone’s house. There was an open fireplace crackling on cold nights. Each of the tables was covered with red and white checked tablecloths. It was rustic, quaint and so authentic as the staff conversed in their rich Italian language. I think the experience of that has always stayed with me and made me a bit partial to Italy as a whole, but particularly the cuisine.

Living in Queensland now it’s not a dish you see on menus. The warm climate doesn’t really lend itself to those rich recipes, but I still love to make it for myself on occasion because it really is so damn delicious.

Cookware – does it make a difference?

The trick to cooking the veal so that they’re tender, fall of the bone, is the pan you cook it in. I like using a cast-iron dish that is coated in enamel. It makes the perfect conduction for heat, allowing the temperature to be perfectly regulated and even throughout the cooking process. No hot spots, no cold spots! This creates the optimum space to gently slow cook your meat. It reduces the liquids perfectly while the meat tenderises, resulting in a delicious thick gravy that can’t be beaten. While my favourite is Chasseur cookware, there are a number of other brands such as Baccarat which is equally as good.

And of course super fresh meat! That’s just a given.

So, enjoy the recipe. Please share your pictures on our Facebook or Instagram accounts and tag them @livingfoodwise.

Plus don’t forget to send us a message below with your comments that are always welcome.

Until next time, have a great day!

Janine

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Osso Bucco

Rating: 5.0/5

( 1 voted )

Serves: 4 Prep Time: 30 minutes Cooking Time: 3 hours 3 hours Nutrition facts: 200 calories 20 grams fat

Ingredients

• 4 tbsp olive oil
• 2 onions, halved and sliced
• 2 celery stalks, chopped
• 3 carrots, roughly chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, finely sliced
• 2 rosemary sprigs or bay leaves
• 500ml (2 cups) chicken or beef stock
• 1.5kg osso buco (veal shanks steaks with bones intact)*
• 1 cup cornflour**, placed in a shallow bowl for dusting
• 300ml Verjuice
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• flat-leaf parsley, to serve

Instructions

1.  Preheat oven to 160 degrees celsius.
2. Season the meat with salt and pepper to your taste, and press into the flour until lightly coated. Heat half the oil in the saucepan and fry the meat, in batches, for 3 minutes on each side until brown and crusty. Set aside while you start on the veggies.
3. Heat the rest of the oil in your saucepan and cook the onion and celery for 10 minutes until softened. Add the carrot, garlic, and rosemary, tossing well, cooking until they just start to brown. 
4. To deglaze the frypan, add the verjuice and bring it to the boil for 2 minutes, scraping any bits off the bottom with a wooden spoon (these bits add flavour). Add the tomato paste,*** and stir well through. Add the stock and bring to a boil, stirring. 
5. Arrange the meat into the stock and vegetables in the casserole dish, and this is best done in one layer, so just moves things around so you can submerge each piece.
6. Put your lid on and cook in the oven for about 2-3 hours, checking on it halfway through. The meat should be falling off the bone.
7. Scatter with parsley and serve with creamy celeriac mash**** and sautéed kale, spinach or green beans.

Notes

*You can make this dish with lamb instead. Go to your butcher and buy a leg of lamb with the bone intact and ask your butcher to slice it into 1-inch steaks.

**To make this dish Paleo, replace the cornflour with arrowroot flour.

***Optional - add some dried chili flakes in with the tomato paste to spice it up.

****To make your celeriac mash, peel your celeriac and steam until tender. Then cream it in a blender, adding olive oil and seasoning. If it's too thick to blend, you can slowly add a small amount of filtered water until you get the right consistency.