Osso Buco Night

I tend to shop the sales when it comes to meats and today I was lucky enough to come across veal shanks on special. It's delicious and super easy -- really hard to go wrong with it. On the Sunday menu tonight is osso buco, risotto milanese and sauteed zucchini.

My osso buco recipe is a compilation of different recipes I've used over the years -- adjusted to serve two.

Ingredients for Osso Buco

• 2 pieces veal shank (approx ¾ lb each)
• ½ medium onion, diced
• ½ carrot, diced
• ½ stalk celery, diced
• 2 cloves garlic diced
• 2 plum tomatoes, diced – if not in season, use canned, preferably San Marzano
• 1/3 cup white wine or fortified wine
• 1 cup stock
• 1 bay leaf
• Flour for dusting veal shank
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
2. Salt and pepper veal shanks, lightly dust with flour and sear over medium high heat until browned, about 3 minutes each side.
3. Remove shanks and add onion, carrots and celery to pan and sautee 5 to 7 minutes until softened and beginning to color.
4. Add garlic, stir for a minute then add tomatoes, continue cooking another 2 minutes. Add wine and simmer for another 2 minutes. Add stock and bay leaf.
5. Return veal shanks to pan (if oven safe) or transfer to oven-safe baking dish. Liquid should come up to about ½ way up the side of the meat, add more stock if necessary.
6. Bake covered in 375 oven for 1-1/2 hours.

Here are the veal shanks, salted, peppered and lightly floured.

Veal Shanks Before Cooking

Next the vegetables are sauteed.

Sauteed Vegetables for Osso Buco

Finally everything comes together. Since I didn't have a small oven safe pan, I transferred everything to a Pyrex.

Osso Buco about to go into Oven

And here's the final dish, served with risotto milanese (Anne Burrell's recipe is easy and excellent). The osso buco is topped with a simple gremolata of grated lemon rind, parsley and chopped toasted pine nuts.

Osso Buco, Risotto Milanese and Sauteed Zucchini

Recipes:

• Risotto Milanese from Food Network