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Sparkle (1)
I remember walking down a narrow cobblestone street in Florence, Italy, perusing the menus of the little sidewalk cafes that were just beginning to lay out the tablecloths for dinner service. The light had turned a deeper shade of blue, reflected off the darkening sky, while a warm breeze swept down the lane and kicked up spirals of tiny spring flower petals. I examined each menu carefully, overwhelmed by choices. So many lovely restaurants, so many amazing dishes, so many smiling waiters waving me down and begging me to come inside. "Ciao signora!" They called. "Che cosa vuoi per cena?"
In Italy, diners don't eat until late; many restaurants aren't even thinking of opening their doors until after 7:30pm. Americans, with our somewhat earlier dining habits, are often famished by the time Italian dinnertime rolls around, and the throngs of US tourists scuttling from menu board to menu board are always fun to watch. Tired of pizza, gelato, and fried risotto balls (or arancini ri riso), these hungry mobs just want a decent sit-down meal. And I was right there with them.
Food in Italy is highly regionalized, but as tourism grows and microcultures blend, we're beginning to see a wide range of foods that are migrating beyond the borders of their homelands. Now you can get Neapolitan pizza in Rome, sfogliatelle in Milan, and cannolis in Bologna. That night in Florence I sat down to a huge place of osso bucco, far from it's original Northern Italian home.
Historically, the dish was found in Milan. Italian for "bone with a hole," osso bucco is generally constructed of a cross-cut veal shanks braised with white wine, stock, and a handful of vegetables. Every family has their own special osso bucco recipe, though you'll often see it sprinkled with gremolata and served with risotto.
According to some older ladies that I spoke to, the original osso bucco alla Milanese was not made with tomatoes; rather it was prepared with only white wine, beef stock, vegetables, and a handful of spices. As times changed, tomatoes were added to make a redder dish, one that resembled more of a bolognese sauce.
After that night in Florence, I had a few different osso bucco versions, each time querying the restaurant owner in my broken Italian to find out how they made their dish. Chefs were very eager to share, and in many cases even wrote down their recipes for me, in a culinary pseudo-English that many kitchen staff seem to pick up through years of working with chefs from different countries. Using all the advice I received in those Italian restaurants (none of which were in Milan, by the way), I came up with a recipe of my own.
After I returned to the states, I began researching osso bucco recipes. I have a billion and one cookbooks, so I had more than a few at my disposal. After testing several versions, the best I found in an American cookbook was from one titled, Good Meat: The Complete Guide to Sourcing and Cooking Sustainable Meat by Deborah Krasner. I adored her dish and have made it time and time again, eventually implementing some of her methods into the recipe that I developed while traveling around Italy, which you'll find below.
For my osso bucco recipe I use a Crock Pot, because I like to braise my meat for hours and not have to watch it. You'll want to use a larger Crock Pot for this dish, so that your shanks aren't piled one on top of the other; while some overlap isn't a problem, but ideally you'll have them sitting side by side, flat on the bottom of the crock. If you don't want to use a slow cooker, feel free to braise your shanks in a Dutch oven or other deep, heavy dish, in the oven at 200 degrees for 3 or 4 hours.
I also use beef shanks over veal (they're cheaper) and quinoa instead of risotto (while less fun, quinoa is healthier and less time consuming to prepare). I eschew all veggies except tomatoes, because I prefer a more meat-heavy dish this time of year. If you like, feel free to add a few chopped carrots, parsnips, or any other sweet root vegetables. Adding veggies will stretch the dish even further, though you may want to add an additional tomato and
