I’ve made osso buco, an Italian dish of braised veal shanks, several times. I’ve eaten it in fine Italian restaurants. I’ve never really liked it until now. This is a great recipe that dad pulled from the web a few years ago which uses pancetta, instead of olive oil, for the browning of the veal and cooking the vegetables. Olive oil is the traditional method, so if you want to skip the pancetta, just substitute several tablespoons of olive oil. But the pancetta adds a lovely flavor dimension, and is probably the secret ingredient that has me liking osso buco for the first time. So use it if you can. “Osso Buco” means “hole of bone” because this marrow provides the rich flavor to the sauce. A marrow spoon, one of those long skinny spoons found in old sterling silverware sets, would come in handy with this dish, as the succulent shank marrow can be tricky to extract (I used the skinny end of a teaspoon). The gremolata (parsley, lemon zest and garlic) is an important garnish for this dish, don’t skip.

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