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The Virtual Group of Italian Chefs celebrates its 5th Annual International Day of Italian Cuisines today as hundreds of chefs in over 40 countries around the world prepare and serve Ossobuco in Gremolata using an authentic recipe.
The Blonde Bear Tavern is joining the celebration, and you can, too. Learn the history of this centuries-old iconic dish, along with an in-depth look at the optimal ingredients and their correct proportion, as we reveal our famed recipe here.
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Italians are masters of braising meats, and ossobuco is a perfect example. Take a relatively cheap cut of meat with lots of connective tissue, Braise it until the tough tissues melt, coating the meat fibers, rendering them soft and silky. As with Brasato, the meat will develop a velvety texture and delicious, earthy flavor, but with the added luxury of unctuous bone marrow.
Ossobuco is a centuries-old Lombard recipe of cross-cut veal shanks braised with vegetables, white wine, and broth. It is typically garnished with gremolata, a combination of lemon zest, parsley, and garlic. The most traditional accompaniments to the dish are risotto alla milanese, polenta, or mashed potatoes.
The dish is famous world-wide, and its recipe has been published extensively outside of Italy. It was featured in Henri-Paul Pellaprat’s famous L’Art Culinaire Moderne, published in France in 1935, and the British Italian Food, by Elizabeth David, first published in 1954. The dish has become a part of the French home cooking tradition, known as ossobucco à la milanaise (with added butter (!)
Every January 17th — for the last five years — the Virtual Group of Italian Chefs (GVCI) promotes one authentic Italian recipe on its International Day of Italian Cuisines (IDIC). We were honored to participate the last two years with a couple of Bellavitae signature dishes: Tagliatelle al Ragù Bolognese, and Pesto Genovese. The previous years featured Pasta alla Carbonara and Risotto alla Milanese.
The International Day of Italian Cuisines is born from a mission, as explained by Rosario Scarpato, GVCI Honorary President and last year’s IDIC Director:
“We certainly aim at educating worldwide consumers, but more than anything else, we want to protect their right to get what they pay for when going to eateries labeled as ‘Italian’; that is, authentic and quality Italian cuisine.”
So in celebratory spirit we participate again this year, right here at The Blonde Bear Tavern. Ossobuco is a perfect entree after skiing all day. Come join us this Tuesday, January 17th, for our preparation of ossobuco.
Lombardy – Birthplace of Ossobuco
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Ossobuco traces its beginnings to Lombardy (“Lombardia” in Italian), and many believe to Milan, although there is some controversy about that. Lombardy is a large region in the north of Italy. The river Po forms a natural boundary in the south, the Alps to the north, with Lakes Garda on the east and Maggiore and Como on the West.
The regional cuisine of Lombardy is based upon ingredients like maize, rice, beef, pork, butter, and lard. Despite being a form of Italian cuisine, Lombard food tends to have little in common with Central or Southern Italian dishes, in many cases lacking the presence of tomato and olive oil, being more meat-based and buttery. In many ways, Lombard cuisine has much in common with that of Austria and much of central Europe in general.
But as Italian cuisine, Lombard food is full of variety and every city and part of the region offers its own specialties. A characteristic Lombard dish is risotto, most famously risotto alla milanese (which is made with saffron), with rice-based food being highly common throughout the region. Similar to risotto, maize-based dishes such as polenta are also common. Other famous Lombard dishes include cotoletta, cassoeula, and of course ossobuco. The region also offers several delicacies and desserts, including mostarda and panettone. Regional cheeses include Robiola, Crescenza, Taleggio, Gorgonzola and Grana Padano.
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What to drink with Ossobuco
Which wines pair well with Ossobuco? Ask the expert, Luca Gardini, named the world’s best sommelier last year. His recommendations are here.
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The History of Ossobuco
The word ossobuco (“oss bus” in Milanese dialect) means “bone with a hole” (osso bone, buco hole), a reference to the marrow hole at the center of the cross-cut veal shank.
Milan claims to be the birth city of ossobuco and in 2007, the City Council declared it as part of the De.Co. (Denominazioni Comunali or community denominations), which is an official public acknowledgement that a dish belongs to a certain territory.
The use of marrow bones and veal shanks was common in Middle Age Italian cuisine, but there is no evidence of the presence of ossobuco as a dish at that time. The recipe is believed to have first appeared in Pellegrino Artusi’s cookbook La Scienza in Cucina e l’Arte di Mangiar Bene (The Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well), the first collection of Italian national cuisine ever published. The book celebrates both home cooking and well-known dishes from all over Italy. These dishes were well-established, indicating the dish had been around for decades, most likely originating in one of the region’s osterie or trattorie.
The Ingredients (for six servings)
For the Ossobuco:
Preparing Ossobuco
Preheat the oven to 325°F and adjust the rack to the lower middle portion, so the Dutch oven will rest in the middle of the oven.
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Related:
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Further Reading:
Ossobuco, the perfect winter dish, most satisfying after a vigorous run down the mountain. Too tired to make it yourself? Join us and hundreds of other chefs around the world on January 17th. Enjoy this famous dish, evolved over centuries, right here at The Blonde Bear Tavern.
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Baked Spinach Lasagne with Meat Sauce in the style of Bologna
Italy’s most famous baked pasta is lasagne! Historians have traced the dish back to at least Roman times, believing its name derives from the Latin lasania [cooking pot], and possibly to ancient Greece.
Lasagne has been widely adopted throughout Italy, with each region placing its own imprimatur on the dish. In Bologna, lasagne is made with fresh spinach pasta and layered with classic ragù alla Bolognese. In Liguria, lasagne is made with pesto (although sometimes the boiled pasta sheets are simply tossed with pesto [Genoa’s mandilli de sæa al pesto]). Neapolitans layer tomato sauce and mozzarella between the pasta sheets, and Calabrians prefer ricotta salata. In Piedmont, I’ve had lasagne with mushrooms and ham; and lasagne with artichokes is, well, sublime.
This dish takes quite a bit of time to prepare, but in our view it’s worth the effort. You can make the ragù alla Bolognese ahead of time. Also, once fully assembled, you can hold lasagne verdi al forno in the refrigerator for two full days if tightly sealed with plastic wrap. Just allow it to return to room temperature before baking.
Continue reading “Ricette Classiche: Lasagne Verdi al Forno”
Tagliatelle al Ragù alla Bolognese [Fresh Egg Pasta Ribbons with Meat Sauce in the style of Bologna] was our most popular pasta dish at Bellavitae. It appeared on the menu when we opened the brick oven every autumn, and lasted into the cold winter months when the oven’s open fire was roaring to keep everything in the restaurant toasty. There is nothing more satisfying in the dead of winter than a comforting bowl of homemade egg pasta with beef ragù.
Ragù alla Bolognese is a centuries-old recipe, where beef is combined with a perfect balance of chopped vegetables and left to sputter for hours over low heat, rendering it succulent and deeply flavored. I know of nothing that so easily warms the soul.
This ragù is very easy to make; the only challenge is that of time. It freezes beautifully or you can hold it in the refrigerator for at least three days. Ours is a most authentic recipe and once you try it you’ll understand why any imitation or variation (some say bastardization) is simply not acceptable – and why the original became so famous.
As autumn submits to winter, the frigid air outside suggests the perfect meal for a Sunday evening gathering – Brasato al Barolo. Beef braises in the oven for hours, lazily simmering in red wine, and produces an aroma like no other. It permeates the house with reminders of Piedmont, the magical alcove surrounded by an arc of the majestic snow-capped Alps.
Braising is a centuries-old but ingenious method of cooking that transforms a less desirable cut of meat into a succulent and flavorful delicacy that does wonders to warm the soul on a cold winter’s night. In The French Laundry Cookbook, Thomas Keller says this about braising:
“When you’ve pulled your pot from the oven to regard your braise, to really see it, to smell it, you’ve connected yourself to generations and generations of people who have done the same thing for hundreds of years in exactly the same way.”
I couldn’t agree more.
Every major cuisine seems to have its method of braising meat in liquid; the French have Pièce de Boeuf Braisée / Boeuf à la Mode, in America we have Yankee Pot Roast, and in Italy it’s Brasato. The Italian word is a derivative of brace, meaning “hot coals”. In the past a heavy pot was buried in glowing coals where the meat would simmer for hours, with more embers placed upon the concave lid.
In Italy braising is used extensively – for a piece of meat or game, sometimes fish or fowl – the most common being beef. It can be marinated beforehand, sometimes with herbs, spices, and/or vegetables. Typically the meat is first browned (gilded) in fat or oil before simmering in liquid for three to five hours. In Lombardy they add cinnamon, cloves, and bay leaves. In Liguria they use dried mushrooms, some ham, and a mixture of wine and beef broth – and sometimes they substitute pork for beef. In Piedmont, the classic recipe is Brasato al Barolo [braise of Barolo wine].
What gives brasato its delicious flavor and tenderness are two components in the roast one doesn’t usually associate with quality meat: fat and sinew (connective tissue). When these parts of the roast are heated to 150° they begin to melt, losing their toughness and dissolve into the muscle fibers, creating a velvety texture and delicious earthy flavor – a process that dry heat is unable to effectively achieve.
Dating back to the 16th Century, Broccolo Romanesco — which is closely related to cauliflower — belongs to the Brassicaceae family of flowering plants and is part of the mustard genus. Thomas Jefferson planted it at his Monticello estate in the 1780s using Italian seeds. However, the vegetable didn’t really catch on in America until the 20th century.
Almost all parts of this species have been developed for food, including the root (rutabaga, turnips), stems (kohlrabi), leaves (cabbage, brussels sprouts), flowers (cauliflower, broccoli), and seeds (many, including mustard seed, rapeseed or canola oil).
Broccolo Romanesco is an unusual vegetable that comes into season during the late fall and lasts through winter. Rich in vitamins and fiber, it is an interesting alternative to broccoli and cauliflower. Give it a try — just don’t over cook it!
Follow the links below for more information and some terrific recipes:
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