Osso Buco (Serves 4-6)
Ingredients
- 3 lbs + of Svante’s Grass Fed Shank- Soup Bones (1 inch thick round cut with marrow bone in center)
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon rosemary
- ½ teaspoon thyme
- 1 teaspoon of garlic powder
- 1 tablespoon of butter
- 2 large onions, chopped
- 4 large cloves of garlic, minced
- 3 carrots, chopped
- 2 stalks of celery, chopped
- 3 tablespoons of tomato paste
- 1 cup of red or white wine (most recipes suggest white, but I think red wine gives it more flavor)
- 2 cups of Svante’s beef broth
- 1 cup of Italian parsley
- 2-3 tablespoon of nuts (pine nuts are traditional, but I like to use pecans)
- 2 cloves of garlic
- Zest of lemon
- Juice of lemon
- 3+ tablespoon of olive oil
Melt the butter in the bottom of a frying pan. Cover the shank bones with salt, pepper, rosemary, thyme and garlic powder. Saute the shanks until brown. Put the shanks in a Dutch oven, casserole dish or in a slow cooker. Saute (add extra oil if necessary) the chopped onions and garlic in the same pan you used to brown the meat. When the onions are mostly cooked, add the carrots and celery and saute for a minute and then add the tomato paste and wine. Cook on low heat until you have gotten all the “good stuff” off the bottom of the pan. Cover the shanks with this mixture. Add enough beef broth to cover the shanks.
Most recipes say you should cook the shanks for 1 ½-2 hours at 325 degrees. My advice is to cook it longer at a lower temperature so the meat is tender and the flavors come out—300 degrees for 4 hours. I would check the casserole every hour to make sure the shanks stay covered with liquid and add more broth as necessary. I also think the flavor intensifies if you make it ahead and let it sit in the refrigerator all afternoon if you make it in the morning or overnight.
When the casserole is done, make the gremolata by combining the parsley, nuts, garlic, lemon and oil in a blender to puree. Add extra oil if it is too thick. Add a little bit (2 tablespoons) of the gremolata to the sauce in the casserole.
Serve the osso buco with risotto or mashed potatoes, topping the shanks with more gremolata.