Name: Gratin of Veal Shanks with Spiced Tomato Sauce and Pasta
Yield: Serves 4
Cuisine: Greece
Ingredients: 3 ounces freshly grated kefalotyri or pecorino Romano cheese (about ¾ cup); 12 ounces tubular pasta, such as bucatini, perciatelli, or ziti; 5 tablespoons unsalted butter; ¾ teaspoon sweet paprika; ⅛ teaspoon crushed hot red pepper; 1 can (28 ounces) whole San Marzano–style tomatoes, seeded and drained in a colander; 1½ tablespoons honey, preferably thyme honey; 1 bay leaf; 2 medium red onions, finely chopped; 1 small Ceylon cinnamon stick; 2 cloves; 2 to 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar; 1 cup dry white or red wine; ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil; 3 large garlic cloves, thinly sliced; 2½ pounds veal shanks, cut into large chunks (ask your butcher to do this); Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preparation info

Serves
4

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

Mediterranean Clay Pot Cooking

By Paula Wolfert

Published 2009

About

Here’s my updated recipe for pastitsatha, a particularly popular dish on the Ionian Island of Corfu, where the food is spicy rather than herbal as in most of Greece. It’s nearly impossible to pass by a kitchen door in Corfu without catching the aroma of sweet paprika cooking in oil, but you’d be hard-pressed to find paprika used elsewhere in Greece.

Pastitsatha is truly an outstanding meal-in-onepot dish. Chunks of farm-raised chicken or rosy veal shanks are cooked slo