Osso bucco Milanese

Serves 4 Starters and mains

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Method

Tie the ossobuchi around and across with string as if you were tying ribbon around a parcel.

Choose a heavy sauté pan with a tight-fitting lid, large enough to hold the ossobuchi in a single layer. Heat the oil and meanwhile lightly coat the ossobuchi with some flour mixed with 1 teaspoon salt. Shake off any excess flour, add the ossobuchi to the pan and brown for a few minutes on both sides. Remove to a side dish.

Add 30g butter to the sauté pan with the onion and the celery. Sprinkle with a little salt, which will help the onion to release its liquid so that it gets soft without browning. When the vegetables are soft – after around 10 minutes – return the meat and its juices to the sauté pan.

Heat the wine in a small pan and pour over the meat. Turn the heat up and boil to reduce by half, while scraping the sediment from the bottom of the pan with a metal spoon.

Heat the stock in the pan you used to heat the wine and pour around half over the ossobuchi. Turn the heat down to very low, cover and cook for 11⁄2-2 hours, until the meat has begun to come away from the bone. Carefully turn the ossobuchi over every 20 minutes or so, taking care not to damage the marrow in the bone.

If necessary, add more stock during cooking, but no more than 3 or 4 tablespoons at a time. If, by the time the meat is cooked, the sauce is too thin, remove the meat from the pan and reduce the liquid by boiling briskly. Transfer the ossobuchi to a heated dish and remove the string. Keep warm in a very low oven.

Cut the remaining butter into 3 or 4 pieces and add gradually to the sauce to give a glossy shine and delicate taste. As soon as the butter has melted, remove from the heat, as the sauce should not boil.

Mix the gremolata ingredients, stir into the sauce and leave for a minute or two. Spoon the sauce generously over the ossobuchi and serve immediately.

For the Italian meat stock

Put all the ingredients in a stockpot with 1 teaspoon salt. Add 3 litres cold water, or enough to cover, and bring to the boil. (The water must be cold to start with, so that the meat and the vegetables can slowly release their juices.) Set the lid slightly askew so that the steam can escape and turn the heat down to the minimum for the stock to simmer (the best stock is made from liquid that cooks at a temperature of 80C/176F, rather than 100C/212F, boiling point). Using a slotted spoon or – better still – a skimmer, skim off the scum that comes to the surface during the first 15 minutes then cook for around 3 hours. Strain the stock through a large sieve lined with muslin or cheesecloth into a large bowl. Leave to cool and then put in the fridge until solidified fat forms on the surface. Remove this and when there are only a few specks of fat remaining, heat the stock a little, then drag a piece of kitchen paper gently across the surface. Most of the fat ‘eyes’ will stick to the paper.

Taste the stock and, if you think it is a bit too mild, reduce over a high heat, remembering that it may taste mild because it contains a minimal amount of salt. Cover with cling film and keep in the fridge for up to 3 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months.