This dish is from the Lombardy and there are many different recipes. The classical recipe is called in gremolata, referring to the sauce. It is a piece of bone with muscle from the end of the thigh or the shoulder of a milk veal. Is always cooked "in umido" to make is delicate and delicious.

In a pan heat a piece of butter and saute a mix of minced onion, celery and a carrot. Add a piece of meat for each person; season with salt and pepper. When the meat has developed flavor, add another piece of butter dipped in flour to enhance the color and bind the sugo. Add water and tomato sugo or concentrate while bringing to boil. Before serving, strain the sugo, remove fat, and put it again on the fire; add minced lemon rind, minced parsley, and remove from fire.

4 veal ossi buchi (4-5 cm high) 50g butter flour 1 spoon oil 1 glass white wine fresh tomato or 1 spoon concentrate 2 cups broth salt and pepper rosemary and sage 1 garlic clove rind of 1/2 lemon parsley

Turn the ossibuchi in flour and brown them in the butter and oil. Extinguish with the wine, add salt and pepper, add rosemary and sage. Let it dry in and add the tomatoes or sauce and cover with the broth. Cook for 1 hour. Mince the lemon peel, the garlic clove, the parsley, and mix them (this is the gremolata). Add the gremolata 15 minutes before serving.

6 veal ossi buchi (4-5 cm high) 2 eggs flour 50g butter 1 glass Marsala wine broth 1 garlic clove 1 handful parsley salt and pepper nutmeg fresh porcini 2 spoons heavy cream

Scramble the eggs and poach the meat in it. Sprinkle with flour and saute the meat on both sides. Pour the Marsala and cook until it is evaporated. add sufficient boiling broth to cover the meat. Cook for 1 1/2 hours. Half way through add the mixture of pesto made with the garlic, parsley, and a little nutmeg. Add the fresh porcini mushrooms. Before serving add the cream.

4 tall ossi buchi 80g butter or margarine 1 celery stalk 1 small carrot 1/2 onion 1 anchovy flour 1/2 glass dry white wine 250g peeled tomatoes garlic, parsley, rind of 1/2 lemon salt, pepper, broth

Dust the ossi buchi in flower and heat the butter. As soon as the butter is melted, add the ossi buchi and saute them on both sides until they are golden. Pour the white wine, and as soon as it is evaporated add the minced mix of celery, carrot, onion, anchovy, salt, and pepper. When the vegetables change color add the tomatoes. Cover and boil for approx. 75 minutes, adding from time to time some broth to keep the sugo dense. A few minutes before taking the meat from the fire, add the mix of minced garlic, parsley, and lemon rind. The ossi buchi can be served with mashed potatoes or you can dispose them along the border of a serving plate and put a risotto alla milanese in the center.

4 large ossibuchi 2 carrots 1 celery stalk 2 pelati tomatoes 1 tea spoon tomato puree salt, black pepper 1/2 spoon herbs (rosemary, sage) 1 spoon olive oil 2 garlic cloves 1 1/2 dl red wine 1 bunch parsley 1/2 spoon table butter

Heat the olive oil in a pressure cooker and brown the ossibuchi on both sides. Take out the meat and grate carrots and celery into the sugo. Add the cubed tomatoes and a squashed garlic clove. Increase the heat to sizzle the legumes. Add the tomato puree, salt, pepper, and herbs, the extinguish with the red wine. When the sugo boils again, put back the meat, close the lid and cook under pressure for 20 minutes. Meanwhile chop the parsley and add the second garlic clove, also squashed. When the meat is ready, cool the pot under running water, open the lid, and put the meat on a warm serving plate. Turn up the heat and cook in the sauce, then pour it over the meat. In a small pan heat the parsley, garlic and butter mix; pout it over the meat before serving.

4 ossi buchi (800 g) 60g butter or margarine salt, pepper flour 1/2 glass dry white wine 1 small carrot 1/2 onion 25g funghi secchi 2 spoons tomato sauce garlic, parsley, rind of 1/2 lemon broth

Dust the ossi buchi in flower, salt and pepper, saute them in the butter. Pour the white wine and let evaporate. Add the mix of chopped onion, carrot, garlic, parlsey, grated lemon rind, and the soaked bolets. Add the tomato sauce and the broth. Cover and let boil at low flame for abut one hour.

Variant: use peas instead of the mushrooms. If frozen, add the peas only towards the end.

Osso buco is a speciality of Lombard cooking, a way of preparing a knuckle of veal. The joint is cut into slices about 1 1/2 inches thick right through the bone -- the butcher will do this -- and cooked in the following manner:

Prepare a hash of onions, celery, carrots, and leeks, and fry it in butter in an iron pot. Sprinkle with herbs, and lay the sliced knuckles on this vegetable bed, adding salt and pepper. Put on the lid for a few minutes to allow the meat to sweat, but take care that the vegetables don't burn. When they are beginning to brown, pour a glass of white wine over the meat, let some of the liquid evaporate, and then sprinkle the vegetables with a little flour, add a tin of tomato puree and some stock, put back the lid, and simmer for 2 hours very gently.

Remove the veal onto a warm dish. Pass the sauce in which it has been cooked through a strainer, remove any fat from the surface, squeeze some lemon juice into it, and sprinkle with chopped parsley before pouring it over the meat.