Roast Veal Shin
Enjoy succulent veal shin with this recipe from The River Cafe Classic Italian Cookbook. Flavoured with Vermentino white wine this is a classic Italian recipe.
Introduction
Around the area of Carrara, the mountainous town where the famous Italian marble comes from, there are many simple little countryside trattorias that primarily serve meat dishes. One such restaurant we visited chose a different cut of meat to roast every day of the week, always using cuts that required long slow roasting.
Ingredients
| 1 | whole veal shin, i.e. the cut used for ossobuco but left in 1 piece (ask your butcher to saw off the knuckle at one end and saw off the end of the bone at the other to expose the bone marrow) |
| 3 tbsp | olive oil |
| 200g | unsalted butter |
| sea salt and freshly ground black pepper | |
| 300-400ml | Vermentino white wine |
| 6 | fresh bay leaves |
Method
Preheat the oven to 180°C. If the veal is at all moist, dry it with kitchen paper before cooking. Heat the oil in a thick-bottomed pan that will fit in your oven. Place the veal shin in the pan and brown it on all sides. Remove it from the pan to a bowl to collect any of the moisture that may have started to run. Drain off any remaining oil from the pan.
Add the butter to the pan and return it to the heat. When the butter has melted, add the veal and any juices and season with salt and pepper. When the pan is hot, add 300ml of the wine and the bay leaves. Cover loosely with a piece of buttered parchment and place in the oven.
Slowly roast for 2½ hours, adding more of the wine or some water if the juices dry up. Turn the shin over once or twice during roasting. The meat will become soft and gelatinous and should be served in thick slices, with a little of the bone marrow knocked from the bone on to each serving and a spoonful of juices from the pan.
