Osso Buco with Gremolata
Slow-braised shin, meltingly tender
Osso buco is the great Milanese braise, a slice of shin cooked so slowly that the meat slips from the bone and the marrow turns to silk. The dish can feel rich and wintry, so the finishing flourish is everything: a raw, fragrant gremolata of lemon zest, garlic and parsley scattered over at the last moment. That bright, citrussy hit cuts through the unctuous sauce and lifts the whole plate.
Osso Buco with Gremolata
Ingredients
- 4 thick slices of veal or beef shin on the bone (about 300g each)
- Plain flour, for dusting
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 50g butter
- 1 onion, finely diced
- 1 carrot, finely diced
- 1 celery stick, finely diced
- 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 250ml dry white wine
- 400g tin chopped tomatoes
- 400ml beef or veal stock
- 2 bay leaves
- Salt and black pepper
- For the gremolata: zest of 1 unwaxed lemon, 1 small garlic clove (finely chopped), 4 tbsp finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
Method
- Tie a length of kitchen string around the circumference of each shin slice to keep it together during cooking.
- Season the meat, dust lightly with flour, and shake off the excess.
- Heat the olive oil in a heavy casserole and brown the shin slices well on both sides, then set aside.
- Lower the heat, add the butter, and gently soften the onion, carrot, celery and garlic for 10 minutes until sweet and golden.
- Pour in the white wine, scraping the base, and let it bubble and reduce by half.
- Add the tomatoes, stock and bay leaves, and return the meat to the pan, nestling it into the liquid.
- Bring to a gentle simmer, cover, and cook in a low oven at 160C (fan 140C) for about 2 to 2.5 hours, until the meat is fork-tender.
- Make the gremolata by stirring together the lemon zest, chopped garlic and parsley.
- Lift out the meat, snip off the string, and reduce the sauce on the hob if it needs thickening. Check the seasoning.
- Spoon the sauce over the shin and scatter generously with gremolata just before serving.
3 The Story
Osso buco belongs to Milan and to the wider region of Lombardy in northern Italy, where it is one of the most cherished dishes of the local table. The name translates literally as “bone with a hole”, a plain and accurate description of the cross-cut slice of shin, ringed with meat around a central plug of marrow. That marrow is the prize. As the shin braises, the connective tissue breaks down into gelatine and the marrow softens, so that a spoon dug into the bone yields something rich and almost buttery.
The cut comes from the lower leg, which works hard and is therefore full of the collagen-rich connective tissue that only long, slow, moist cooking can tame. Veal is the traditional choice and gives the most delicate result, though beef shin is widely used and stands up well to the same treatment. Either way, the method is the same: brown the meat for colour and flavour, build a base of softened vegetables, then let everything simmer gently for hours until the fork meets no resistance.
There are two broad schools of osso buco. The older, more traditional version is made without tomato, the meat braised simply in wine and stock. The more familiar modern style, sometimes distinguished by adding tomatoes, gives a redder, more robust sauce and is the one most cooks reach for today. Both finish the same way, with gremolata.
Gremolata is the masterstroke and the part that defines the dish for many people. It is nothing more than raw lemon zest, garlic and parsley chopped together, but stirred or scattered over the finished braise it transforms it. The point is contrast: against the deep, savoury, long-cooked sauce, the gremolata brings a fresh, sharp, almost perfumed lift that resets the palate with every mouthful. Because it is uncooked, it keeps its colour and its bite, and it should always go on at the very end.
In Milan, osso buco is classically served with risotto alla milanese, the saffron-yellow rice that turns the plate golden. Soft polenta or plain mash make equally fine partners for catching the sauce. Whatever you choose beneath it, the combination of meltingly tender shin, glossy sauce and that final green flourish is hard to better on a cold day.
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