I recently stopped in to see my dear old friend, Nick Maccarone, at his popular restaurant, Carnival (carnivalrestaurant.net), in Port Jefferson Station, New York. Nick is a self-made man who has owned Carnival for 42 years—it has become the local restaurant and pizzeria of choice in the community. He attributes his success to constantly striving for improvement and a focus on customer satisfaction and great food.
While I was at Carnival, I met Anna Aracri, who is also a wonderful chef. She makes her own breads, pasta and dough. I shared a picture of an earlier visit with Nick and Anna in the December issue of PMQ. This month, Anna offers her personal recipe for osso buco, a Milanese dish made with veal shanks, vegetables, white wine and broth. Mangia!
Ingredients:
Osso Buco Sauce
Veal shanks, 12 oz. each
1 c. all-purpose flour
¼ tsp. pepper
½ tsp. kosher salt
4 celery stalks and some leaves, finely chopped
2 medium to large onions, thinly sliced
½ c. olive oil (divided in half)
4 tbsp. butter, unsalted
1½ c. grated Grana Padano cheese
1½ c. reduced-sodium chicken broth, hot
¾ c. dry white wine
Fresh chopped parsley for garnish
1 piece of cheese rind
Additional salt and pepper to taste
Anna’s Homemade Pappardelle
2 c. all-purpose flour
2 eggs
1 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
3 tsp. kosher salt
Warm water
Directions:
To make the pappardelle, sift flour into a large mixing bowl. Add salt. Form a well in the middle of the flour and gently mix in the eggs and oil with a fork. Gradually incorporate the flour into the liquid. When it turns crumbly, slowly add warm water, little by little. Form the mix into a dough ball (make sure it’s not too moist). Place the ball on a floured surface and cover for 1 hour.
Roll the dough ball out on a well-floured surface and pass the dough through a pasta machine until it reaches desired thickness (start with a higher setting and then move down to a lower setting). Cut pasta into desired thickness and length. Add ½ tsp. salt and ¼ tsp. pepper and place in a shallow bowl.
Rinse and dry veal shanks and coat on all sides with flour. Heat olive oil in a large shallow saucepan and brown shanks until golden on all sides. Remove the shanks from the pan and cover. Add onions, celery and butter to the saucepan and sauté, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to medium and add more salt and pepper to taste. As onions and celery begin to soften, return meat and any juices to the pan. Add cheese rind, remaining olive oil and hot chicken stock. Turn meat to moisten and continue to simmer on medium to low heat. Cover and allow some moisture to build.
Add white wine and return to medium heat for 3 to 5 minutes. Continue to stir and turn meat again. Now reduce the heat to low and simmer, covered, for 20 to 25 minutes.
Meanwhile, cook pasta in boiling water and salt for 4 to 6 minutes. Ladle one scoop of pasta water into the sauce. Strain pasta and pour sauce over the pasta. Sprinkle cheese on top, gently stir and top with the veal shanks. Finish with chopped parsley.
