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Last weekend there was a group in my restaurant celebrating a birthday.

The menu they chose included a very classic osso buco alla Milanese.

On planning the menu, we were trying to offer something that did not require orders to be prepared individually. I suggested beef short ribs or a roasted beef brisket, but the diners said no, those were too banal.

I started thinking about it and realized that these days you can't go to a restaurant without seeing a braised meat on the menu, in particular beef short ribs. I have had them in everything from French and Italian to Asian cuisines, and they've been on my own menu for years. Granted, the fatty content creates flavour and tenderness that make them difficult to pass up, even if they are wrongly dubbed a "low-end" cut of meat.

But when it comes to a classic dish, I am waiting for osso buco to make its triumphant return. Osso buco is cut from the rear shank of any quadruped. The name refers to the shape of the cut and means "hollow bone." The shank is cut in crosswise slices about two inches thick, leaving the bone in a circular shape and exposing the marrow inside.

In this new age of global cuisine I have even done monkfish osso buco, in which the bone is surrounded by the meat. But this is not true osso buco.

The osso buco most of us know is made from veal and is braised gently for 1½ hours or until tender.

It is a hard meat that needs to cook for a long time at low heat and should be handled very gently to prevent it from falling apart. The meat is full

of tendons, which soften up during cooking, making it tender and moist, with a punch

of flavour.

Osso buco is popular all over Italy, but the most famous preparation is the one from Milan. This is generally served with saffron-flavoured risotto (saffron from Abruzzo is the best) and a renowned gremolata, made with garlic, parsley and lemon rind, all finely chopped and spread raw on top of the meat in the last two minutes of cooking.

The great debate in Italy is whether to make it with tomato paste or not. The older version predates the arrival of tomato on that great peninsula, but in this recipe we use the tomato paste.

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OSSO BUCO ALLA MILANESE

What you need

Osso buco

4 large osso buco, 300 grams each (white veal is preferred)

½ cup onion, finely chopped

4 cloves garlic, finely chopped

2 sprigs rosemary

1 tablespoon tomato paste

1 cup white wine

2 cups unsalted beef broth

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Flour for dredging

gremolata

½ cup parsley, finely chopped

4 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 lemon rind, finely grated

What you do

In a braising pan at high heat, add the butter, oil, onion, garlic and rosemary. Cook until translucent, then remove from the pot and set aside. Keep the pot on the fire.

Season the meat with salt and pepper and dredge inthe flour. Shake well and place into the hot pot, searing until golden. Remove any excess fat and add the cooked onion to the pot. Pour in the wine, then add the tomato paste after the wine has evaporated. Add all the stock, cover with a lid and simmer gently until the meat is tender (about 1½ hours).

Once tender, sprinkle the gremolata over the meat and cook for two to three minutes more.

Remove the osso buco and reduce the sauce to the desired thickness.

Serve with a saffron risotto or mashed potatoes.

Serves 4.

Beppi's wine matches

The classic match here is Barolo, the noble, full-bodied red from Milan's nearby province of Piedmont. Expect to pay $50-plus. Barolo, named after a town, is made from the nebbiolo grape, as is Barbaresco, the nearby and less-expensive red. For a budget choice, consider a nebbiolo-based wine from the outer Langhe region that encompasses Barolo, but comes without the price premium, such as Giovanni Viberti Langhe Nebbiolo ($20, available in British Columbia). But many other full-bodied reds could work, such as negroamaro-based wine from southern Italy, Bandol or St. Joseph from France, or a merlot or cabernet from Chile.

Beppi Crosariol