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Rach's version of the beloved Italian dish osso buco (braised veal shanks) comes from her latest cookbook, Rachael Ray 50, and is finished with citrus zest and pistachios.

Get more recipes from her cookbook here.

Adapted from Rachael Ray 50: Memories and Meals from a Sweet and Savory Life by Rachael Ray. Copyright © 2019 by Rachael Ray. Used with permission by Ballantine Books. All rights reserved.

Ingredients

  • 1 cup each chicken and beef stock, or 2 cups chicken stock
  • 1 fat pinch saffron threads (20-24 threads)
  • 4 to 6 pieces veal shanks (2 ½ to 3 inches thick), tied with kitchen string
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • Salt and pepper
  • 1 orange
  • 1 lemon
  • 1 teaspoon fennel seeds
  • 1 large carrot, peeled and chopped
  • 2 to 3 small ribs celery with leafy tops, chopped
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 1 bulb garlic, all but 2 cloves crushed and chopped, reserve 2 whole garlic cloves
  • 2 large fresh bay leaves
  • 1 bundle rosemary and thyme, tied with kitchen string
  • 2 tablespoons tomato paste
  • 2 tablespoons flour
  • 1 cup dry white wine
  • ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
  • One 28-ounce can whole Italian tomatoes plus their juices, crushed by hand
  • About ½ cup fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves
  • ⅓ cup toasted pistachio nuts, finely chopped or processed into crumbs
  • Crusty bread, for mopping

Yield

Serves: 4 to 6

Preparation

Place the stock and saffron in a small pot over low heat to steep. Bring the meat to room temp. Preheat oven to 325˚F.

In a large, heavy Dutch oven over high heat, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil, 2 turns of the pan. Season the shanks with salt and pepper, add to the hot pan and cook for 10 minutes, turning the meat occasionally until browned all over. Remove the meat to a large plate. 

Zest about 2 teaspoons each from the orange and the lemon and reserve the fruit. 

Reduce the heat under the pot to medium. Add the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil and the fennel seeds to the pot and stir for 1 minute. Add the carrot, celery and onion to the pot along with salt and pepper and stir for 5 minutes. Then add the crushed and chopped garlic, bay leaves and the rosemary and thyme bundle. Stir for 1 minute more. Add the tomato paste and sprinkle the flour over the vegetables. Stir for 1 minute more. Then add the wine and deglaze the pot, scraping and stirring for 1 minute. Stir in the saffron stock, red pepper flakes, tomatoes, and the juice of the orange to the sauce. Scrape down the pot and settle the meat into the pot. Cover and transfer to the oven. Cook for 2 hours, turning the meat once about halfway through.

When the meat is about ready to come out of the oven, combine the orange zest, lemon zest, parsley, pistachios and the remaining 2 cloves of garlic and finely chop to combine. 

Remove the veal from the oven. Split the crusty bread and put it in the oven to warm through, along with the serving platter and dinner plates. 

Remove the shanks to the warm plate and cut off the kitchen string. Place the pot over medium heat, fish out the bay leaves and rosemary-thyme bundle from the sauce, and whisk to combine and thicken 4-5 minutes. Turn off the heat and add the juice of 1 fat lemon wedge. 

Serve the shanks in shallow bowls topped with chunky sauce and crusty bread for mopping the sauce.