Instant Pot · Autumn and winter
Instant Pot Osso Buco
Beef shanks in tomato, with carrot and celery, finished with parsley, lemon zest, and a little raw garlic. The tomatoes stay on top of the meat so the pot does not scorch.
About 1 hour 45 minutes, mostly hands-off · Serves 6 · 4 shanks
“Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and you will enjoy the choicest of foods.”
Ingredients
- 4 cross-cut beef shanks, about 1 ½ inches thick, 3 pounds total
- 1 ½ tsp fine salt
- ½ tsp black pepper
- 1 tbsp olive oil or beef tallow
- 1 onion, chopped
- 2 carrots, cut into small chunks
- 2 celery stalks, cut into small chunks
- 4 garlic cloves, minced, divided
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 cup beef broth
- 1 can crushed tomatoes, 14 ounces
- 1 bay leaf
- ¼ cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
- 1 tsp lemon zest
Method
- 1
Pat the shanks dry and salt and pepper them. Set the pot to sauté. Heat the olive oil or tallow and brown the shanks in two batches, about 3 minutes a side. Set them aside.
- 2
Cook the onion, carrot, and celery 4 minutes. Stir in half the garlic and the tomato paste for 30 seconds. Pour in the broth and scrape the bottom clean. Turn the sauté off.
- 3
Return the shanks. Spoon the crushed tomatoes over the meat. Do not stir the tomatoes down onto the floor of the pot. Thick tomato against the hot metal is the usual reason this dish burns. Tuck in the bay leaf.
- 4
High pressure for 50 minutes. Natural release for 20 minutes, then release what is left. The meat should give under a fork. If it holds, cook 10 minutes more and release. Discard the bay.
- 5
Stir the parsley, lemon zest, and the rest of the raw garlic together and scatter it over the shanks just before serving. The raw garlic is small and it should stay raw. Cooking it in the pot would make it bitter and flat.
From the kitchen
- Veal shank is the older osso buco, and it is done sooner, about 30 to 35 minutes at high pressure for the same thickness. This recipe is written for beef, which needs the longer time.
- A half cup of white wine can stand in for half of the broth. Boil it in the pot for a minute after the tomato paste, before the broth goes in, so the alcohol cooks off.
- The sauce is already thick from the tomato. It does not need flour or cornstarch.
My note
Kept on this device, beside the recipe, for the next time you cook it.
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