Lamb Shanks Braised With Rosemary, A Recipe

I did this last night...didn't measure much. Worked extremely well and could go with polenta, mashed potatoes, or grits. The volumes are large, but it will divide easily.

Ingredients:

24 lamb shanks
1/2 cup EVOO, or more. Mine was rosemary infused
4 yellow onions, fine diced
3 lbs carrots, 1/4 inch sliced
1 head of celery, fine diced
20 cloves of garlic, crushed
10 bay leaves
1 t red pepper flakes
@ 1/2 cup fresh rosemary, minced
@1/3 cup fresh thyme, tied in a bundle
24 oz good tomato paste
4 cups rich beef stock
4 cups rich chicken stock
@1.25 L of good cabernet
24 oz of crushed Cento tomatoes
1/2 cup minced Italian parsley
salt and pepper

Method

Salt and pepper the shanks well, and heavily brown in EVOO over med heat. Remove.

Add the onions, celery and carrots...sauté 10 or so minutes, adding the garlic in the last 2 minutes.

Then stir in the tomato paste, and brown for another 5 minutes, stirring a bit.

Add the crushed tomatoes, stocks, wine and herbs, except for the parsley.

Simmer for 2+ hours, stirring every so often, until the shanks are fork tender. I left the lid off , mostly, to reduce the volume and thicken the dish.Add the parsley. Adjust salt and pepper to taste.

You can cook a day in advance, cooling the shanks separately. When ready for service, the sauce can be heated and reduced more, if you wish, then combined with the shanks and served. This one is good.