Osso Buco Recipe: Braised Veal Shank with Vegetables

Osso Buco: Braised Veal Shank

☆ 4.4

I really liked the traditional meat dish of northern Italy made from a veal shank with a “round” bone: osso buco. It’s all very simple. The term literally means “bone with a hole”: the cut of meat is easily recognized by the piece of round hollow shank bone that stays in the meat when it is sliced. The same term is used for the cut of meat and for the dish made from it.

Meat on the bone, lightly browned and then braised with vegetables, is a dish with a complex makeup whose technique is, by and large, fairly simple. Meat with vegetables like this is typical of Lombardy, where it is considered part of the cultural tradition and is usually served with the wonderful Milanese risotto, with added saffron, and topped with gremolata.

The bone with its marrow is a must in the finished dish. The braised shank with vegetables is served as a main course or as part of one, together with pasta or risotto. The meat is most often 3-4 cm thick, though you do find thicker and thinner pieces. Incidentally, the thickness of the piece doesn’t affect the taste of the dish, although visually a massive piece is of course more pleasing.

You need veal for cooking, because beef is tougher and doesn’t have the same flavor and aroma. The vast majority of recipes start by browning the floured meat in oil, most often a mix of olive oil and butter. Sometimes lard is used. Then the meat is braised with vegetables in a mix of white wine and meat broth until the veal is as tender as it can be.

You need young veal: it is pale and fairly soft to the touch. The bone is big, round and clearly stands out. Cut it 3 cm thick or more. The meat shouldn’t be “fresh-killed”, but preferably not frozen either.

From my own experience, the more meat the better. If there are two pieces per serving, that is only welcome. Especially if you aren’t making a side dish such as risotto, pasta, or potato or lentil puree. To my mind, the braised vegetables are quite enough. When served with risotto, the meat often falls into large pieces and loses its shape. How and with what to serve the dish is up to you; it will be delicious either way.

18 ingredientsTo the recipe
More with veal

Ingredients

2 servings

  • Meat and vegetables
  • Veal shank pieces with a round bone, at least 3 cm thick 2
  • Meat broth 2 cups (400 ml)
  • Dry white wine 1 cup (200 ml)
  • Carrots, small 2
  • Onion, large 1
  • Celery, large stalks 2
  • Sweet pepper, large 1 (optional)
  • Canned tomato pulp 1 can (400 ml)
  • Olive oil 50 ml
  • Butter 2 tbsp
  • Wheat flour 2 tbsp (20 g)
  • Salt, ground black pepper to taste
  • Spices for the sachet
  • Bay leaves 2-3
  • Black peppercorns 5-6
  • Allspice berries 1-2
  • Rosemary a small sprig (or a pinch of dried)
  • Basil a small sprig (or a pinch of dried)
  • For serving
  • Gremolata (parsley, lemon, garlic) 1-2 tbsp per serving (4–8 g)

Step-by-step recipe

Meat and vegetables

  1. Get the veal: shank pieces with a round marrow bone.

    Large pieces of veal cut from the shank with the bone are available in stores. They may not be perfect in shape and thickness for the dish, but they cook very well. What matters is that it is veal, not beef. Alternatively, at any market you can always find suitable meat, or explain how it should be cut, and they will gladly help you.

    Veal shank.

  2. Get the vegetables: several small undamaged carrots, a large onion, a couple of large celery stalks and tomato.

    Don’t take a large carrot; as a rule it is less juicy and coarser. If you like, and recipes often allow it, you can add a large, fleshy sweet pepper to the vegetable sauce for osso buco. For the tomato, ideally use a can of tomato pulp, 400 ml. If you have plenty of ripe red tomatoes, you can use those.

    Vegetables and tomato.

  3. Lightly salt the veal pieces and season with ground black pepper, and lay them on a plate. Sprinkle with flour, then rub it in.

  4. Turn over, pepper and salt the other side, and sprinkle with flour as well. You don’t need too much flour, so don’t dredge the meat in it.

    Flouring the veal.

  5. Heat a frying pan, add a piece of real butter and the olive oil. The meat will fry in the fat mix, which gives the nicest aroma.

  6. Put the veal pieces into the well-heated fat. Fry for 3-4 mins until the surface browns.

  7. Turn the pieces over and brown the other side the same way. Transfer the veal to a separate plate.

    Brown the meat.

  8. Peel all the vegetables. Cut the onion, carrots and celery stalks (and the sweet pepper, if using) into roughly equal large cubes.

  9. Put all the vegetables into the remaining fat in the pan. Fry the vegetables for 5-6 mins over medium heat, stirring. The goal isn’t to make the vegetables soft but to let them absorb the remaining fat. Don’t fry them too hard.

    Fried vegetables.

In the baking dish

  1. You need a large baking dish, of any material. It should be deep enough to hold all the vegetables plus about 1 liter of liquid.

  2. Lay all the browned pieces of meat in the dish side by side, with small gaps.

    Put the browned meat in the baking dish.

  3. Cover the pieces of meat completely with the fried vegetables. Spread them evenly into the gaps with a spatula or spoon.

  4. Put the spices in a sachet bag: 2-3 bay leaves, 5-6 black peppercorns, 1-2 allspice berries, a small sprig of rosemary and basil, or a generous pinch each of dried herbs.

    So that the spices don’t “float” in the finished dish, it is better to put them in a sachet; it is then easy to find and throw away.

    Cover the meat with vegetables.

  5. Tie the sachet and put it with the meat and vegetables.

  6. Spread the contents of the can of tomato pulp over the top.

  7. Salt the vegetables, then add a full cup of dry white wine and top up with meat broth, made beforehand, so that the vegetables are completely covered with liquid.

    Add the tomato pulp.

  8. Cover the dish with foil.

Braising in the oven

  1. The meat cooks for a long time. It is important that the meat becomes tender and completely soft, and that the vegetables become soft and blend with the liquid into a fragrant, tasty sauce.

  2. Preheat the oven to 160-170°C and put the dish in.

  3. When the liquid first shows signs of boiling, note the time roughly, and after 1 hour remove the foil.

  4. Continue braising the meat and vegetables uncovered. The total cooking time is at least 3 hours. The meat is done when it is very tender and comes away from the bone easily. In the end the sauce should be a little thick from the braised vegetables, with as little free liquid as possible.

    Braise in the oven.

Serving

  1. Take the dish out of the oven, find the bag of spices and throw it away.

  2. Depending on how you plan to serve it, make risotto or pasta and put the whole osso buco or pieces of it on top, with the vegetables.

  3. Put 1-2 tbsp of gremolata on top or alongside.

    I have already written how to make it; it’s simple. It is a mix of chopped parsley, garlic and lemon zest, combined with lemon juice, spices and olive oil.

    Gremolata.

  4. Osso buco can also be served as a dish on its own: put a piece of veal with the bone and the vegetables on a large plate and add gremolata. The dish is served hot. It is a main course and goes very well with wine.

    osso buco

Calories and macros

485 kcal

Serving ≈ 610 g

  • Protein9 g8% of kcal
  • Fat35 g68% of kcal
  • Carbs29 g24% of kcal

100 g80 kcalProtein 1.5 gFat 5.8 gCarbs 4.7 g

Calculated from the recipe ingredients, excluding salt and spices. Data: USDA and Matvaretabellen.

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