Osso bucco 17th luglio 2011

Osso bucco 17th luglio 2011

On Sunday we went to a fantastic proper full on local restaurant. Not local to us, but my word a proper local restaurant. Run by a family, with the cooking headed and controlled by "nonna" - the grandmother. We lamented how we thought that in 10 years or so there would be few of these places left, with restaurants being run only as businesses rather than family affairs.

This place was in Sinalunga and is called Forcillo. We had a table on the veranda, the sun was shining, and the weather was great that day, a roaring 34C.

http://www.forcillo.it/

I wanted to eat lamb al'umido but unfortunately there was none left, so I had my first ever osso bucco.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osso_Bucco

Osso bucco is essentially a cut through a cow femur, latitudinally, complete with the bone marrow still in there. Literally it means "bone with a hole" and contains marrow in the middle which is supposed to be the best bit. It is very common on the menu in Tuscany but I have not had the balls to try it before today. Unfirtunately I was a little disappointed - the leg meat was very gamey, and the vegetable stew was really overpowering - possibly with too much celery. The marrow was impossible to taste through this. However, this is probably all as I am getting much more fussy the longer I spend in Italy. Overall it was a great experience. But one I will try again somewhere to see if it is better elsewhere.

And of course we had some great other stuff, I had a starter of ravioli with funghi and tartufo - mushrooms and truffles, with the ravioli stuffed with ricotta and spinach, which was excellent, then a reasonable tasting, if cheap, and oily grappa with my caffe d'orzo. And of course we had some rather pleasant vino rosso della casa for absolute peanuts.

Valdichiana is the also the home of the outlet village nearest to Siena. Its pretty crap and is full of the equivalent of the people who go shopping in Stevenage. Of course, nowhere near that bad, but I could not recommend anyone foreign to go there, except if you lived there, since the availability of lots of shops in one area is a delight when you live in Siena.

Osso and out. JJ