Ossobuco requires time.
Ossobuco, a sliced veal shank, is one of the typical cuts of the Italian cucina povera, cheap but highly rewarding and satisfying if treated with care. The most famous ossobuco recipe comes from Milan. They braise the ossobuco in bianco, without tomato sauce, with onions, white wine, and beef stock, and serve it sprinkled with gremolata, a condiment made of finely minced lemon zest, garlic, and parsley, with saffron risotto.
In Tuscany, we braise it in tomato sauce, with a generous base of battuto – minced vegetables such as onion, carrot, and celery. Serve it with a spoonful of soft polenta, some boiled potatoes, or only a loaf of bread, which will serve both to mop the sauce on the plate and to spread the marrow on it.
Scooping the marrow from the bone and smearing it on a toasted slice of bread is my favourite part of the ossobuco eating experience, and this is probably the reason I had to learn how to cook them properly.
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Ossobuco alla fiorentina.
I’ve always been intimidated by ossobuco because I thought it wasn’t easy to cook them and have soft, tender meat. But the secret is still the same, be patient, cook the ossobuco over a gentle heat for at least an hour and a half. The other trick is to cut the skin surrounding the meat, or remove it completely, to prevent it from curling during cooking.
Read the recipe here.
Serve the braised veal shank with…
Let’s pretend we are sitting at a communal table in a Florentine trattoria, one of those long marble tables with yellow paper placemats and a menu written on a typewriter. For the first course, we will go for a trattoria classic, penne strascicate, then we’ll have ossobuco – and make sure we have a basket full of bread – and maybe we will order the sautéed spinach as a side dish. We will close the meal with a slice of torta della nonna, an espresso, and then off to explore the city, as we once used to do, as I hope we will soon do again.
Penne strascicate. Cook the penne very al dente, drain them, leaving aside some of the cooking water and toss them in a pan with the meat sauce, a few tablespoons of olive oil, a handful of grated Parmigiano Reggiano and some pasta water. This is when you have to strascicare the penne, which means to drag them in the pan, toss them, so that they finish cooking in the sauce, absorbing the flavour.
Torta della nonna. A typical cake you can find in bakeries and pastry shops, a crisp shell of short pastry with a thick filling of lemony scented custard, everything topped with a generous handful of pine nuts, or almond fillets sometimes.
Join our virtual cooking classes
We are missing the people we used to meet during our market tours and cooking classes. We had to figure out a new way to share our passion for food, to virtually meet all the food enthusiasts who gave us so much through the years. This is why we launched a virtual Tuscan cooking class on Udemy, an online learning platform.
Tuscan Cooking Class
Traditional recipes, pantry staples and ideas to add to your cooking repertoire.
Learn to cook:
Chicken liver crostini, Fried sage leaves, Tagliatelle, Ricotta and spinach tortelli, Potato gnocchi, Tuna and tomato sauce, Roasted pork loin, Stuffed roasted turkey breast, Roasted lamb, Tuna stuffed round zucchini, Tuna loaf, Fresh peas with garlic and pancetta, Almond biscotti, Olive oil cake, Shortcrust pastry dough, Jam crostata, Shortcrust sandwich jam cookies, Shortcrust Tartlets, Robinia flower fritters.
Includes:
19 step-by-step cooking demonstrations
a PDF with ingredients, tools and instructions of each recipe
free access to upcoming new recipes
lifetime access
Cost: €34,99. Join us here.
[New!] Vegan Cooking Class
Join our course with traditional, authentic recipes, belonging to the Tuscan cooking tradition, that are, at the same time, naturally vegan. It also includes gluten-free options.
Learn to cook:
Chickpea flour cake, Hand-pulled fresh pasta pici with rye flour, Panzanella (tomato bread salad), Pappa al pomodoro (tomato bread soup), Ribollita (bean, Tuscan kale and bread soup), Grilled vegetables, Stewed green beans, Castagnaccio (chestnut flour cake).
Coming soon: Gluten-free potato gnocchi, Sugo finto (herb and tomato sauce), Aglione sauce (garlic tomato sauce)
Includes:
19 step-by-step cooking demonstrations
a PDF with ingredients, tools and instructions of each recipe
free access to upcoming new recipes
lifetime access
Cost: €29,99. Join us here.