Giada De Laurentiis  is difficult for me to watch. It may be the way they're trying to make her show the American version of Nigella Bites. I think she could be a good host if her show wasn't trying to be so artsy. Also, her head looks huge to me.

Anyway, I watched her Everyday Italian show a while ago and was pleasantly surprised to find that her recipes are pretty dang good. The show I watched was Italian Comfort Food and one of the recipes was Turkey Osso Buco. She said that the original dish was Veal Osso Buco, but turkey worked great too. The basic idea is to brown the meat on the stovetop, sweat a trinity mix in the same pan, then braise the meat for two hours in the oven with the trinity, some fresh herbs, white wine wine and chicken stock. The first time I made it was with chicken and it turned out great. The legs had no tendons left because they were all cooked to yummy gelatin. I'd skin the chicken next time because it seemed to get an odd texture in the long cooking. It probably made the sauce much better though.

Venison is a meat, like squid, that is best cooked in one of two ways: hot and fast, or low and slow. So the second time I made osso buco was with venison, red wine and beef stock. It worked out great. Lots of flavor, tender meat like a brisket. Good stuff. I guess I'll have to see if I can watch Giada for more than a few minutes at a time because this is now a staple dish for me.

--Ben

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