With the World Cup over you would think it was time to return to normal sleeping patterns.  However, this is not the case.  Each year in the month of July the Tour de France cycling race is on.  This race involves 21 sleepless nights on my part watching 198 guys on bikes riding between 170 and 220 kilometres a day, at speeds up to 100 kilometres an hour all in pursuit of the converted Maillot Journe (or yellow jersey in English).  These cyclists are crazy and although they wear tightly fitting lycra and shave their legs they are the toughest sportsmen on the planet.  You will never look at a football player the same again.  Cycling is indeed a real tough guy sport.

You may ask why I speak of a cycling race on a cooking blog.  Firstly it is in France and French people love good food.  Secondly each night on SBS’s TdF coverage of the race they have a small 5 minute segment hosted by renowned chef Gabriel Gaté called Taste le Tour.  Each day he describes some of the foods of the region they are cycling through.  I call it late night food porn.  Even if you have no interest in the race it is well worth watching.

For this post I have cooked one of his dishes from last years tour Osso Buco.  I know you are saying isn’t that an Italian Dish? And indeed it is.  Last year the Tour rode a day predominantly on Italian soil, hence an Italian dish was featured.  This dish exceeded my expectations and I will be cooking it again.  The gremolata really lifts the flavour and makes it special so don’t think of omitting it.

Osso Buco
Adapted from  “Taste Le Tour” by François Le Gendarme (aka Gabriel Gaté)

Serves 4

Ingredients
4 Large Pieces of Osso Buco
2 tbsp Plain Flour
2 tbsp Olive Oil
½ Onion, finely diced
1 Garlic Clove, finely diced
½ Carrot, finely diced
1 Celery Stick, finely diced
½ cup Dry White Wine
2 Tomatoes (skinned and diced)
1 tbsp Tomato Paste
1 Bay leaf
4 Thyme, sprigs
1 cup Beef Stock
Gremolata
1 tbsp Parsley, finely chopped
1 Garlic Clove, finely chopped
1 Lemon zest, finely chopped

Method
  1. Dust Osso Buco with flour and set aside.  Heat 1 tbsp of olive oil over a medium heat in a sauté pan or Dutch oven.  Sauté onion, garlic, carrot and celery until translucent.  Remove vegetables from the pan and set aside.
  2. Heat 1 tbsp of oil in the pan and brown Osso Buco on all sides.  Deglaze the pan with the white wine.  Add the vegetables, tomatoes, tomato paste, bay leaf, thyme and beef stock to the pan and stir well to combine.  Make a cartouche from foil and cover the stew.  Cook over a low heat for approximately an hour or when the meat it just falling off the bone.
  3. Just before serving make the gremolata by mixing the parsley, garlic and lemon together.  Reserve a little gremolata for garnishing and stir the rest through the sauce.
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