Description
Impress everyone with Slowly Braised Beef Osso Buco—a restaurant-worthy classic Italian dish that’s surprisingly easy to make at home! Bone-in beef shanks become meltingly tender as they gently simmer with simple vegetables, fresh herbs, tomatoes, and red wine, creating a rich, bold sauce.
Serve over creamy risotto Milanese for a traditional pairing—or toss with pappardelle pasta for an extra cozy dinner. Perfect for at-home date nights, holiday gatherings, or wintery Sunday suppers!
Check the recipe notes for oven-braised, slow cooker and Instant Pot directions.
Ingredients
Scale
- 4 pounds beef osso buco (bone-in beef shank steaks, see Recipe Notes)
- kosher salt and ground black pepper, to season
- 3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
- 3 large carrots, peeled as desired and diced
- 2-3 stalks celery, finely diced
- 1 large yellow onion, finely diced
- 8 cloves garlic, finely chopped or grated
- 4.6 ounces double-concentrate tomato paste
- 1 cup dry red wine
- 3-4 sprigs fresh rosemary
- 10-12 sprigs fresh thyme
- 2 dried bay leaves
- 1 cup tomato passata (or 14 ounces crushed tomatoes)
- 1-2 cups low-sodium beef broth/stock or water
- 8.8 ounces pappardelle or pasta of choice
- for serving, as desired: finely grated parmesan cheese, gremolata (below), etc.
for the gremolata:
- ⅓ cup finely chopped fresh parsley
- 1 lemon, zested
- 1 clove garlic, finely chopped or grated
Instructions
For the Braised Beef Osso Buco:
- Prep: About 30 minutes – 1 hour before you’d like to begin cooking, pull the beef osso buco from the refrigerator. Use a paper towel to pat all sides of the beef shanks as dry as possible. Using kitchen shears or a sharp knife, snip through the outer membrane of each osso buco in 4-5 spots around the meat. If desired, wrap kitchen twine around the outside of each osso buco, securing with a tight knot. Season liberally with kosher salt and ground black pepper – a good rule of thumb is 1 teaspoon kosher salt per pound of osso buco. Set aside to warm to room temperature while you prepare the remaining ingredients (chop the soffritto, measure liquid ingredients, etc.).
- Brown the beef: Add 2 tablespoons of the olive oil to a large, heavy-bottomed pot with lid or Dutch oven (at least 5-qt capacity) over medium-high heat. Once hot and simmering, carefully add the seasoned beef – work in batches, if necessary, to avoid overcrowding the pot. Cook 4-5 minutes per side, until deeply browned – don’t forget to brown the skinnier edges, too! Once seared, transfer to a plate and repeat with any remaining osso buco.
- Brown the soffritto: If needed, add the remaining tablespoon of olive oil to the pot and reduce heat to medium. Add the soffritto vegetables (carrots, celery, and onion). Season with 1 teaspoon kosher salt and ground black pepper as desired. Stir to combine. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the soffritto is deeply browned, 15-20 minutes.
- Cook the aromatics and deglaze: Add the garlic and tomato paste to the pot, stirring to coat the soffritto mixture. Cook 2-3 minutes, until browned and fragrant. Deglaze the pot by slowly pouring in the red wine, using a wooden spoon to scrape up any browned bits that may have formed on the bottom of the pan. Simmer until the wine is nearly cooked off.
- Build the braised osso buco: Tie the fresh herbs together using kitchen twine (or finely chop if you do not have twine), then add to the pot with the bay leaves, crushed tomatoes, and stock/broth or water (I start with about 1 cup, then add more as needed as the osso buco simmers). Stir to combine well, then nestle the browned beef shanks in the pot.
- Braise the osso buco: Bring the pot up to a boil, then reduce heat to maintain a very gentle simmer. Cover and braise for 3 – 3 ½ hours. To ensure an even cook, spoon sauce over the beef shanks every hour or so and add extra stock/broth/water to the pot if the sauce reduces too much. The osso buco is ready when the meat is tender, shredding easily with the twist of a fork.
For the Osso Buco Pasta:
- Boil the pasta: About 20 minutes before the osso buco is ready, begin cooking the pasta. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Once boiling, add the pappardelle. Cook to al dente according to package directions, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking. Once cooked, carefully dip a liquid measuring cup into the pot to reserve about 1 cup of the starchy pasta water, and set aside. Carefully drain the pasta. Learn more! ⇢ How to Cook Pasta Perfectly Every Single Time!
- Prepare the gremolata: Add all listed ingredients to a small bowl. Season with a good pinch of salt. Mix to combine well. Set aside for serving.
- Toss the osso buco pasta: Transfer the braised beef shanks to a plate, then add the cooked pasta to the pot with the osso buco sauce. Toss to combine well – the sauce should evenly coat the pasta. Add in some of the reserved pasta water if the sauce needs to loosen up a little; increase the heat if it needs to tighten up a little. Cook 1-2 minutes, allowing the pasta to meld with and absorb some of the osso buco sauce.
- Serve: Portion the osso buco pasta into individual pasta bowls, placing a braised beef shank over top. Finish with gremolata and grated parmesan cheese, if desired. Serve immediately. Enjoy!
Notes
Ingredient Notes:
- Beef vs. veal osso buco (Italian for “hole in the bone”) refers to the meaty cross-section of bone-in veal or beef shank. This Northern Italian dish is traditionally prepared with veal osso buco, which is indeed delicious but also a bit more difficult to come by here in the States, which is why I’ve written this recipe for beef osso buco. If veal is accessible to you, feel free to use it in this recipe—just be sure to swap the red wine for white wine and adjust cooking time as needed (delicate veal braises more quickly than hearty beef).
- Sourcing tips and a note on recipe portions: Your Italian market may regularly stock osso buco, but I’ve had the most success special ordering beef osso buco from my local butcher. Four osso buco typically amounts to the four pounds needed for this recipe. Assuming you want a restaurant-style presentation of one bone per serving, the recipe yields four very generous/hearty portions, but it can easily be stretched to serve a crowd of 6-8.
- Osso buco swaps: If you cannot find osso buco, the closest swaps are beef short ribs. For best results, choose meaty ribs with nice marbling. Using bone-in short ribs creates more depth of flavor, though boneless short ribs work just as well in this recipe. If you have trouble finding beef short ribs, feel free to use beef chuck roast instead, slicing the roast into 4-6 hearty pieces.
- Passata is uncooked Italian tomato puree made by running plum tomatoes through a food mill to remove the seeds and stems—a great shortcut ingredient to keep stocked in your pantry! If you cannot find passata, canned crushed tomatoes work well too—you’ll need about ½ of a standard 28-ounce can for this recipe; reserve any remaining for making another sauce, soup/stew, or pizza night.
- Suggested red wine: Use a bold red wine that stands up to the rich flavor of the beef shanks. No need to use the nicest wine here, but it should definitely be drinkable since it provides the base flavor of the braising liquid. I suggest a nice, medium-bodied Chianti or Merlot. If you do not want to cook with alcohol, swap wine for more beef stock, noting that your osso buco sauce may be a little less aromatic than described.
Alternate Cooking Methods:
- Oven-Braised Osso Buco: Prep the recipe according to Steps 1-5, above. Rather than braising on the stovetop, transfer the covered pot to a 325 degree F oven. Braise in the oven for 3 – 3 ½ hours, until the beef shanks are fall-apart tender, then finish the osso buco pasta as described in Pasta Steps 1-4.
- Crockpot / Slow Cooker Osso Buco: Prep the recipe according to Steps 1-4, above*. Transfer the browned beef shanks and deglazed aromatics to the slow cooker. Build the braising liquid as directed in Step 5. Slow cook on high for 4-5 hours or on low for 7-8 hours, then finish the osso buco pasta as described in Pasta Steps 1-4. (*Note: If your slow cooker has a searing/browning feature, you can use it to cook the entire recipe (Steps 1-6) in the slow cooker.)
- Electric Pressure Cooker/Instant Pot Osso Buco: Use the Instant Pot’s “Sauté” setting to cook the recipe according to Steps 1-5, above. Cover and seal the pressure cooker. Cook on manual high pressure for 40 minutes. Allow the pressure cooker to naturally release pressure for 10 minutes before carefully flicking the valve to its “venting” position to vent out any residual pressure. Finish the osso buco pasta as described in Pasta Steps 1-4.
Make-Ahead, Storage, and Freezing:
- Osso Buco Pasta Storage and Reheating: Leftover osso buco pasta will keep, stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator, for 3-4 days. Reheat in the microwave or on the stovetop until warmed through, adding a splash of stock or water as needed to loosen up the osso buco sauce to your desired texture.
- Make-Ahead Osso Buco Storage and Reheating: Osso buco is the perfect make-ahead recipe because it stores so well—it gets even better as it sits and its flavors meld together! To store, prep the osso buco through Step 6 of Recipe Directions, above. Once cooled, transfer to an airtight container and store in the refrigerator for up to 3-4 days. To serve, reheat the osso buco on the stovetop. Once simmering, finish according to Pasta Steps 1-4.
- Freezer Instructions: Osso buco is also incredibly freezer-friendly. To freeze, transfer the beef shanks and any leftover sauce to a freezer container. Freeze up to 3 months. Thaw in the refrigerator overnight or submerge the freezer container in room temperature water for a quicker thaw. Reheat on the stovetop until warmed through and adjust as needed—if the sauce is a little watery at first, simply allow any residual water simmer out; if it is too thick, simply add in a splash of water or stock until your desired consistency is reached. Once simmering, finish according to Pasta Steps 1-4.