Osso buco is one of our favourite meals for a few reasons:
- Its slow cooked all day. After nearly 9 years of parenting, slow cooking food is my number one hack when it comes to smooth mealtimes. If you can get dinner on in the morning when everyone is relatively happy, or in nap time when you have some peace, the nights and ‘witching hour’ goes so much smoother!
- Because its slow cooked, all the beautiful collagen from the bone marrow is leached through the meal, and the meat is soft and falls apart which makes it so perfect for baby led weaning and a really great introduction to meat.
- This meal is high in iron and zinc, two important nutrients that babies require when they start solids – read more about that here. Also great for postpartum mamas who also require high amounts of these nutrients!
- Its really versatile – I like to make this meal and eat it over a couple of days. We generally serve it with mashed potato/cauliflower the first night, then the next night bulk it out with pasta or rice – it makes a delicious pasta sauce!
I also served this with some gremolata which just adds an incredible zesty flavour and cuts through the meat so beautifully. Gremolata is such a flavour punch, don’t be afraid to offer it to your baby! They often love the big flavours and its great to incorporate them in the early months of starting solids.
This recipe can be adjusted to suit your baby/toddler/older child easily.
For puree you can just blend all the osso buco with some mashed potato or other vegetables until smooth.
For BLW I like to leave some pieces of carrot a bit larger (2 finger length/width) and slow cook them with the osso buco, then offer these with the meat and other vegetables or pasta.
You can also offer with pasta by either blending all the puree into a ‘sauce’ and mixing through the pasta, or for babies over 9 months, you can leave the pasta a little more ‘chunky’ with the meat as its soft and tender and still breaks apart. I like to use a pulse pasta like red lentil pasta, as its are high protein and contain some iron as well.
Osso Buco
Ingredients
- 1.5-2 kg osso buco
- 1 TBSP ghee or tallow or olive oil
- 1 brown onion sliced
- 3 cloves garlic finely sliced
- 1 carrot diced
- 2 stalks celery diced
Optional:
- 1 eggplant diced
- 1 sprig rosemary or thyme finely chopped
- 2 bay leaves
- 800 ml passata or diced tomatoes
- 500 ml bone broth or stock
- Salt and pepper to taste
To Serve:
- mashed potato/cauliflower, rice or risotto or through pasta.
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 130c
- In a large casserole dish add the ghee over a medium-high heat and then brown off the osso buco on both sides.
- Once browned transfer the meat to a bowl to rest, and to the hot pan add the onion, garlic, celery, carrot, herbs and eggplant if using and allow to caramelise stirring occasionally.
- Add the Passata, bone broth, bay leaves to the dish and stir. Add the meat in an even layer and the resting juices. Ensure the liquid is nearly covering the meat, if not add more broth or water.
- Pop the lid on and place in the oven for around 6 hours or until the meat is falling off the bone.
- When ready – scoop the marrow out of the bones and shred the meat off. Season with salt and pepper. Serve with mashed potato or cauliflower or rice or through pasta!
Notes
If spoon feeding, puree all together until smooth Notes:
Freezes well for up to 6 months in deep freezer
Keep the bones for a bone broth.
Gremolata
Equipment
- 1 blender
Ingredients
- 1 cup flat-leaf parsley finely chopped
- 1 garlic clove minced
- 1 lemon zest and 1 teaspoon of lemon juice
- 0.25 cup extra-virgin olive oil 60 ml
- 1 pinch sea salt
- 2 TBSP capers optional
Instructions
- Place the parsley, garlic, lemon zest, lemon juice, olive oil, salt and capers (if using) in a small bowl and stir until combined. Or you can add to a food processor and blitz until combined. If you prefer a looser consistency, add more oil.
- Transfer Gremolata into a jar or airtight container and store in the fridge.
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