Sunday lunch, Italian style

Last weekend’s weather was gloomy and windy. The first leaves have started to fall. Ideal weather to make one of my favourite autumn dishes and a great Italian classic: ‘osso bucco’ or veal shanks in a spicy tomato sauce. This is my recipe. Maybe you have some tips to improve it. 

Besides a big cast iron pot (Le Creuset type) you need, for two people:

- 2 nice veal shanks
- a 400 gr. tin of chopped tomatoes
- 2 onions
- 1 stalk of white celery
- 5 carrots
- 1 or 2 cloves of garlic (according tot taste)
- a glass of dry white wine
- olive oil
- a cube of vegetable stock
- flower, pepper, salt, Worcestershire sauce, a few flakes of dried chilli

Chop the onions, carrots, celery, and garlic. Put some olive oil in the pot and let it get warm. Then put in the chopped vegetables, stir well and let simmer gently until the onion is slightly transparent. Add the chopped tomatoes, stir again and season with salt, pepper, Worcestershire sauce, chilli flakes. Finally, add the stock cube. Turn down the heat, and let the mixture simmer while you fry the shanks.

Season the veal shanks using pepper and salt. Coat them lightly in some flower and bake them in a few tablespoons of hot olive oil for about 3 minutes on each side or until golden brown.

Transfer the shanks to the pot with the vegetables and deglaze the frying pan using the white wine. Stir well and scrape up all the pan juices using a wooden spoon. Let the wine reduce to about 2/3 of its original quantity and pour the remaining liquid into the pot with the vegetables and veal shanks.

Put the pot on a low heat and let it simmer for 2 hours. Stir occasionally. After two hours, turn off the heat and put the pot aside. The next day, reheat the ‘osso bucco’ slowly (during at least half an hour) and serve with pasta and grated parmesan cheese.

This meal will certainly put some colour on you cheeks, especially after a long autumn walk. Bon appetit!


P.S. I know the original recipe calls for a topping of 'gremolata' = grated lemon peel and parmesan cheese ... but personally I'm not particularly fond of grated lemon zest.

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