Slow-cooked, packed with flavour, hands-off
Fantastic, comforting beef Osso Buco ragu is an absolute winning dish.
- Serves: 4
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 3 – 4 hrs hand-off cooking
- Difficulty: easy
- Ideal for: family, crowd-pleaser, weekend lunch/dinner, batch cooking
Beef Osso Buco ragu
What is a ragu?
It’s a meat-based sauce, usually served with pasta.
Traditionally, tougher cuts of meat, are cooked on a low heat in a braising liquid that’s tomato or wine-based over a long period of time.
The low and slow cooking will make the tougher cuts become incredibly tender and full of flavour.
Types of ragu
VariationsThere are many regional variations of ragù, including:
- Ragù alla Bolognese: The most famous ragù, from Bologna in Emilia-Romagna
- Ragù alla Napoletana: From Naples, made with a variety of meats, including pork and beef
- Ragù alla Barese: From Bari, sometimes made with horse meat (eek)
- Ragù alla Veneta: From Veneto, a duck ragù that traditionally doesn’t contain tomatoes
What’s the difference is between a ragù and a bolognese?
Ragu is a stewed sauce (and not necessarily with tomatoes).
Bolognese doesn’t necessarily refer to a sauce or to ragu.
It just refers to the people of Bologna, as they do in Bologna, or Bologna-style.
Beef Osso Buco
What is Osso Buco?
Osso buco is an Italian dish that traditionally braises veal shanks.
It originates in Milan.
And is an Italian phrase that basically means a bone with a hole in it or a cross-cut shank or shin.
The cross-cut veal shank has a marrow hole at the centre which gives lovely lush flavours to the stew.
Traditionally, the braising liquid is some combination of wine and stock, and the veal may or may not be browned in flour first.
It’s slow-cooked for hours so the meat gets fork-tender.
Then to serve, they add gremolata (a mixture of chopped lemon peel, parsley, and garlic) as the garnish.
However, I’m using beef osso buco.
There are loads of different versions of osso buco.
But they all give you the same thing.
And that’s a hearty dish, full of rich flavour and tender meat.
Beef Osso Buco ragu
Ingredients
- 500 g beef Osso Buco (grass-fed of possible)
- 2 tbsp flour
- ground pepper and salt for seasoning
- 1 large onion, diced
- 6 garlic cloves
- 8 anchovies
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 ltr beef stock
- sprigs of thyme
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 cinnamon stick
Instructions
- Dust the Osso Buco with seasoned flour, then brown all over in an ovenproof dish – you may need to do in batches to avoid overcrowding.Set aside once done.
- In the same dish, add a little oil and cook the onion and garlic cloves for a couple of minutes. Then add the anchovies and gently break down with a wooden spoon before adding the tomato paste. Mix everything together and gently cook off for 2 – 3mins. Then add a little stock to help scrap off the brown bits on the bottom and mixing in before adding the beef back into the dish and the rest of the Osso Buco.
- Add the thyme, bay leaves and cinnamon sticks, bring to a simmer, pop the lid on and into the oven at 160C for 3.5 – hours or until the meat is tender.
- Once the Osso Buco is nice and tender, remove from the oven. Remove the bones and using two forks shred the meat.Cook the pasta to the packet instructions, then add to the ragu, mix in and serve with grated parmesan.
Video
References: Pasta Evangelists