The lighter side: osso bucco biondo

Make no mistake about it. One of Annalena's favorite foods to cook, and to eat, is osso bucco. Especially during the colder months, this is such a satisfying dish to make, and also to eat. If you have no manners, like Annalena, you sit there at the end of the meal, and exemplify the title "hole in a bone," and suck the marrow out. Who needs forks or spoons? That thick, unctious tomatoey sauce over some risotto: does it get better?

Well, it doesn't get better, but sometimes it gets different. And easier. Read on, ragazzi. Annalena's source recipe for osso bucco is the star of Italian cooking, Marcella Hazan, and her definitive book on things Italian, at least from the kitchen. (When I say things "Italian," you must keep this in mind. Not all Italian style cooking is going to be your favorite. For example, I recently looked up her recipe for squab, and it called for cooking it for an hour. Cook squab for an hour and you won't want it. Fifteen minutes is more like it). In any event, the recipes are frequently terrific.

The page on which her osso bucco recipe sits is stained from my efforts with the dish. On the following page is a recipe for "osso bucco biondo," which I hadn't made until this past weekend. Why? Well, when you love a dish so much... You can fill in the rest.

But this past weekend, things came together in the way that they do, to encourage trying a new dish. Some weeks ago, when I bought the veal for my annual foray into osso bucco making, way more was delivered than I expected, and I had six shank cuts in the freezer, taking up enormous amounts of space. This weekend was the first sign that spring is on the way. It's not winter, and it's not spring, but it just doesn't feel "right" to be serving wintery foods. Yet, you want something substantial, because the temperature is inching over 50 and then retreating. This recipe seemed to straddle two worlds: hearty, like osso bucco, but lighter, like spring time foods. You'll see what I mean when I go through it. And it's good. OH, is it good.

"Biondo," because it doesn't have the dark tomato based sauce that osso bucco does. In fact, this sauce is so simple, it almost shouldn't be called such. Here's how I made it.

First, you need six 3/4-1 inch thick slices of veal shank. Just ask for osso bucco meat, and you'll be fine. You are also going to need flour, salt, a lemon, parsley, white wine, butter, and olive oil.

And that's it. The cooking technique is simplicity itself. Here we go. Have your meat ready. By that I mean have it on a tray, patted dry. I usually let it sit in the air for about an hour, turning it halfway through, to dry both sides. Signora Hazan recommends tying the meat. I forgot to do so, and it didn't seem to matter. Have a flat surface with lots of all purpose flour ready. Get a really big, deep pan, and test to see if you can get all six shank slices in it, in one layer. If you can't, use two pans. Don't layer the meat, however.

Take 1/4 cup of olive oil and 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter, and melt it in your pan. If you use two, then increase the olive oil to 2/3 cup and 4 tablespoons of butter, and divide the stuff into the two pans. Turn the heat to medium high, and when the butter melts, and starts sizzling, take the shanks and dip them into flour on both sides. Get them into the pans, and leave them to brown deeply. This will take about 3-4 minutes a side. Be patient. When they're browned, add some salt and a grind or two of pepper. Now, take a cup of white wine, and pour it into the pan, after you've lowered the heat to medium. Again, if you use two pots, increase the wine quantity by about 1/3 of a cup, and divide it. Cover the pots, and lower the heat to a gentle simmer. After 20 minutes, check and if the liquid is almost gone, add 1/3 cup of water to the pots. You'll do this several times. Check at 40 minutes, and then, after an hour, put them in the oven, at 350, and leave them there for at least two hours. Check the liquid every hour while they're cooking.

After 2 hours, check to see that the meat is falling off the bone tender. If it's not, let things cook another half hour or so, and then they should be ready.

In that last half an hour, cut the peel off of one large lemon and chop it finely. Also chop half a bunch of parsley. When the pots are out of the oven, toss the lemon peel and parsley in, stir it, and...

YOU... ARE... DONE...

Did that seem very hard? I didn't think so.

Unlike osso bucco, however, this is not a dish to make too far ahead of time. Do it the day you serve it. We had it with a roasted vegetable couscous and some garlicky swiss chard.

I promise you, it doesn't get much better.