Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking - Marcella Hazan [168]
When the oil is quite hot—it should sizzle when the veal goes in—slip in the shanks and brown them deeply all over. Remove them from the skillet using a slotted spoon or spatula, and stand them side by side over the chopped vegetables in the pot.
4. Tip the skillet and spoon off all but a little bit of the oil. Add the wine, reduce it by simmering it over medium heat while scraping loose with a wooden spoon the browning residues stuck to the bottom and sides. Pour the skillet juices over the veal in the pot.
5. Put the broth in the skillet, bring it to a simmer, and add it to the pot. Also add the chopped tomatoes with their juice, the thyme, the bay leaves, parsley, pepper, and salt. The broth should have come two-thirds of the way up to the top of the shanks. If it does not, add more.
6. Bring the liquids in the pot to a simmer, cover the pot tightly, and place it in the lower third of the preheated oven. Cook for about 2 hours or until the meat feels very tender when prodded with a fork and a dense, creamy sauce has formed. Turn and baste the shanks every 20 minutes. If, while the ossobuco is cooking, the liquid in the pot becomes insufficient, add 2 tablespoons of water at a time, as needed.
7. When the ossobuco is done, transfer it to a warm platter, carefully remove the trussing strings without letting the shanks come apart, pour the sauce in the pot over them, and serve at once. If the pot juices are too thin and watery, place the pot over a burner with high heat, boil down the excess liquid, then pour the reduced juices over the ossobuco on the platter.
Note Do not flour the veal, or anything else that needs to be browned, in advance because the flour will become soggy and make it impossible to achieve a crisp surface.
Gremolada
If you wish to observe ossobuco tradition strictly, you must add an aromatic mixture called gremolada to the shanks, when they are nearly done. I never do it myself, but some people like it, and if you want to try it, here is what it consists of:
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel, taking care to avoid the white pith
¼ teaspoon garlic chopped very, very fine
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
Combine the ingredients evenly and sprinkle the mixture over the shanks while they are cooking but when they are done, so that the gremolada cooks with the veal no longer than 2 minutes.
Ahead-of-time note Ossobucocan be completely cooked a day or two in advance. It should be reheated gently over the stove, adding 1 or 2 tablespoons of water, if needed. If you are using the gremolada, add it only when reheating the meat.
Ossobuco in Bianco—Tomato-Less Braised Veal Shanks
THE LIGHT-HANDED and delicately fragrant ossobuco of this recipe is quite different from the robust Milanese version. The tomato and vegetables and herbs of the traditional preparation are absent, and it is cooked in the slow Italian pan-roasted style, entirely on top of the stove.
For 6 to 8 servings
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
8 1½-inch-thick slices of veal hind shank, each tied tightly around the middle
Flour, spread on a plate
Salt
Black pepper, ground fresh from the mill
1 cup dry white wine
2 tablespoons lemon peel with none of the white pith beneath it, chopped very fine
5 tablespoons chopped parsley
1. Choose a large saute pan that can subsequently accommodate all the shanks snugly without overlapping. (If you do not have a single pan that broad, use two, dividing the butter and oil in half, then adding 1 tablespoon of each for each pan.) Put in the oil and butter, and turn on the heat to medium high. When the butter foam begins to subside, turn the shanks in the flour, coating them on both sides, shake off excess flour, and slip them into the pan.
2. Brown the meat deeply on both sides, then sprinkle with salt and several grindings of pepper, turn the shanks, and add the wine. Adjust heat to cook at a very slow simmer, and cover the pan, setting