Ossobuco alla Marcella
The ossobuco Kate cooks when the family comes to dinner.
”Serves 6-10 (if some of them are kids)
- 3 medium onions, finely chopped
- 2 carrots, finely chopped
- (2 sticks celery, finely chopped) (I don’t put this in, cos I don’t like cooked celery)
- good squidge of butter (sorry Nicci, I am not going to give you a measure)
- 1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
- 2 strips lemon peel
- olive or vegetable oil
- 8 good size pieces of ossobuco
- several spoonfuls of plain flour, spread on a plate
- cup of dry white wine
- 325ml good quality beef or chicken stock
- 400g tin of tomatoes, coarsely chopped with their juice
- good bundle of thyme
- 2 bayleaves
- 2 or 3 sprigs of parsley
- pepper and salt
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
Choose a big casserole (or two smaller casseroles) in which you will be able to fit all the veal in a single layer. Over a medium heat, cook the onion, carrot and celery (if you are using it, which I don’t recommend, particularly if I’m coming to dinner) in the butter until the vegies are soft (about 8 to 10 minutes). Towards the end add the lemon rind and the garlic. Remove from the heat.
Heat the oil in a frying pan over a high heat. Coat the veal pieces in the flour and shake off the excess, then brown the veal on both sides. (Only coat the veal just before you brown it, otherwise it gets soggy.) Pop the veal into the casserole on top of the vegies.
Draw off most of the fat from the frying pan, then add the wine. Boil it briskly for three minutes, while scraping up and loosening the yummy browning bits from the pan. Pour the wine over the veal in the casserole.
Put the casserole back on the stove over a high heat. Add the stock, the tomatoes, the herbs and several good twists of pepper. The liquid should come to the top of the veal pieces. If not, add more liquid.
Once the cooking liquid has come to a simmer, cover the casserole tightly and pop it in the oven. Cook for at least two hours, occasionally basting the meat, if you remember to. If you find there is not enough liquid at any point, add warm water.
Serve with either Felix Rice, or Simple Creamy Polenta.
Some recipes also advise serving with a gremolata of grated lemon peel with chopped garlic and parsley. Marcella states “In the light of modern taste, I find that the gremolada overloads with unnecessary sharpness a beautifully balanced and richly flavoured dish. I never serve ossbuco with gremolada.” So there. I am usually a) too tired, and b) too far into my first or second glass of wine, to get around to the gremolata, so I am not about too argue with her.
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