2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 medium carrots, peeled and chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2-4 veal shanks
1/2 cup flour
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup dry white wine
28 ounces canned plum tomatoes
1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
1 tablespoon dried basil or sage
1/4 teaspoon sugar
2 cups veal or beef stock
8 ounces fettuccine
1/4 cup Parmesan, grated
salt and pepper
water

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. Heat a dutch oven or other ovenproof pot over medium heat. Melt butter with olive oil, the add onions and carrots, sautéing until onions are translucent. Stir in the garlic, then remove from heat.
3. Meanwhile, heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Season veal shanks with salt and pepper and dredge with flour. Shake off excess flour, then add olive oil to the skillet and brown shanks on both sides. Transfer to the dutch oven on top of the vegetables.
4. Deglaze the skillet with wine and the juice from the canned tomatoes and reduce the liquid by half. Crush the tomatoes and add them to the skillet, along with the parsley, basil or sage, sugar and veal stock. Season to taste with salt and pepper, then pour over the veal shanks.
5. Cover the dutch oven and put into the oven, cooking until veal is tender, about an hour and a half.
6. Transfer the veal shanks to a warmed plate and keep warm. Bring the remaining sauce to a boil and reduce until thick.
7. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add a generous pinch of salt, along with the fettuccine.
8. Cook pasta until al dente, then drain and add to the thickened sauce. Serve pasta and sauce on a plate, topped with the veal shank and a generous portion of freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

Makes 4 servings

Tonight was all about trying to recreate a pasta dish I had when visiting Simon in Vancouver, the Osso Bucco Fettuccine at La Notte. As I mentioned in that write-up, the pasta and meat were great, but the sauce was really lacking. I have now totally switched butchers after discovering one closer to me with a better selection and friendlier staff. They have a full selection of veal where my other butcher had none whatsoever, which is partially what inspired me to try this out now. This was also a test to see whether or not Shannon likes veal, since she was previously turned off by the Rigatoni I made with ground veal in the meat sauce. Personally, I think that's an award winning touch, but I guess we all don't like the same things unfortunately.

I picked up two veal shanks, which to me just seem like such "cheffy" cuts of meat to buy. They were pricier than most meat I buy, but they're so delicious I didn't particularly care. I also picked up some veal bones and made my own veal stock. I was very committed to this dish! It may only be a single recipe entry, but it sure dirtied enough dishes and took long enough to prepare. All of these things, like fresh pasta and stock, could easily be picked up at the grocery store, of course.

I made this batch of fresh pasta with egg and flour alone. Without adding water, a single egg seems to make a decent entree serving of pasta with however much flour it can absorb. So 2 eggs plus however much flour was more than enough for Shannon and myself. I think I like the texture better with water and yolks alone, because with whole eggs the pasta taste like, well, egg noodles. Lesson learned.

Since the shanks had to be slow-cooked, I was starving by the time dinner time rolled around. This was probably a bad thing, because I scarfed down my entire plate of food and consequently felt bloated for the next 3 days. This is one of the benefits of being behind in updating the site is that I'm aware of these things, I guess. It was way too much for one person. I mean, look at the size of those shanks? I'm not able to handle that much food.

My only real complaint about the dinner is that I used some leftover red wine instead of white, which overshadowed the flavor of the veal. Shannon really enjoyed that part of it though, since she wasn't particularly in favor of the flavor of veal that she remembered. I would definitely go the white wine route if I were to make this again. I was also happy to get good use out of my dutch oven that has been somewhat neglected since I picked it up.