Osso buco

Jen loves to eat polenta. Osso buco and polenta are a match made in heaven, or you can use mashed potato. It literally translates to bone with a hole, and refers to the lovely marrow in the bone. You can get veal or beef osso buco, but veal can be hard to come by. 

OSSO BUCO

Prep: 15 mins
Cook: 2½ hours
Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp of plain flour
• 1 tsp of salt
• a pinch of pepper
• 4 pieces of beef osso buco
• 40ml / 2 tbsp of olive oil
• 1 brown/yellow onion, finely diced
• 2 cloves of garlic, crushed or grated
• 2 carrots, diced
• 1 stick of celery, finely diced
• 4 sprigs of flat leaf parsley
• 1 sprig of thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• 400g/14oz of tinned/canned diced tomatoes
• 250ml / 1 cup of water
• 100ml / ½ cup of white wine (optional)
• mashed potatoes or polenta, to serve

Method

1. Preheat oven to 170ºC/325ºF/Gas Mark 3 (reduce by 20ºC/50ºF/one gas mark if fan forced).
2. Season flour with salt and pepper and mix. Coat the meat in flour mix, shaking off excess flour before cooking.
3. Heat half the olive oil in a wide-based saucepan and brown the beef. Remove meat from saucepan.
4. Wipe the pan with paper towel if the flour has burnt.
5. Add remaining oil, onion, garlic, carrot, celery, parsley and thyme to the pan and a little water to soften the vegetables but not brown them.
6. Cook the vegetables for 15 minutes.
7. Add bay leaf, tomatoes, water and wine (if using) and bring to the boil.
8. Return meat to the pan (ensure liquid just covers meat), cover with baking (parchment) paper, place a lid on top and cook in the oven for 2 hours. If doubling the recipe, allow half to cool to room temperature before freezing for later use.
9. Cook potatoes, mash and serve. Polenta is also good as a side, but take into account it takes 50 minutes to cook (see separate polenta recipe).

TIP
Put the seasoned flour in a large freezer bag then add the meat to coat easily. Polenta is a great side for this dish.