The Osso Bucco Challenge
I must credit Lidia Bastianich and the Osso Bucco at Becco in NYC for my love of this dish.
There is something incredibly addicting about a dish that takes hours to cook and melts in your mouth with delicious, well blended flavours.
Which brings us to this past Monday. I was going to finally tackle Osso Bucco for a small dinner party at my moms.
I was ready. I had read recipes. Lots and lots of recipes. I decided to go with Mario Batali's recipe from his Molto Italiano cookbook. Seemed easy to follow and he has yet to let me down - either on recipes or at his restaurants. I had even gotten over how $$ veal shanks are! $10-$12 a pound equals about $40 of meat for a dinner party of 4. And that doesn't include all the other ingredients that go in to this dish.
I prepped, I read the recipe again, I prepped more. I have no clue why this dish was so daunting to me - I know how to cook. I'm a GOOD cook. I don't measure and I rarely follow recipes 100%. But this was different. This was Osso Bucco. I guess I wasn't really over the cost of the shanks, and was just worried that I'd be tossing away a large chunk of my food budget (we won't talk about today's trip to Whole Foods). I started to mentally prepare a back up plan just in case....but ran out of time, and the osso was all or nothing.
The best way to describe how it all came together is a comment from one of my mom's friends: "The Osso Bucco was to die for...the meat fell off the bone...every bite was a delight. The risotto was a perfect complement to the meat. And the chocolate ravioli for dessert was the coup de grace. One of the ten best meals of my life." One of the best food compliments I have even gotten. :)
Ah.....now to find a new challenge.
But first, I need a snack. Remembering the meal has made me quite hungry.
There is something incredibly addicting about a dish that takes hours to cook and melts in your mouth with delicious, well blended flavours.
Which brings us to this past Monday. I was going to finally tackle Osso Bucco for a small dinner party at my moms.
I was ready. I had read recipes. Lots and lots of recipes. I decided to go with Mario Batali's recipe from his Molto Italiano cookbook. Seemed easy to follow and he has yet to let me down - either on recipes or at his restaurants. I had even gotten over how $$ veal shanks are! $10-$12 a pound equals about $40 of meat for a dinner party of 4. And that doesn't include all the other ingredients that go in to this dish.
I prepped, I read the recipe again, I prepped more. I have no clue why this dish was so daunting to me - I know how to cook. I'm a GOOD cook. I don't measure and I rarely follow recipes 100%. But this was different. This was Osso Bucco. I guess I wasn't really over the cost of the shanks, and was just worried that I'd be tossing away a large chunk of my food budget (we won't talk about today's trip to Whole Foods). I started to mentally prepare a back up plan just in case....but ran out of time, and the osso was all or nothing.
The best way to describe how it all came together is a comment from one of my mom's friends: "The Osso Bucco was to die for...the meat fell off the bone...every bite was a delight. The risotto was a perfect complement to the meat. And the chocolate ravioli for dessert was the coup de grace. One of the ten best meals of my life." One of the best food compliments I have even gotten. :)
Ah.....now to find a new challenge.
But first, I need a snack. Remembering the meal has made me quite hungry.
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