Midollo, Schienale

One of the attractions of ossobuco alla milanese, shin of beef cooked in a tomato sauce, is the marrow. It is pure fat and tastes heavenly. Bone marrow is also used to flavour risotto alla milanese. When my mother cooked beef stock she used shin of beef and I would amuse myself by extracting the marrow from the cooked bone, put it on toast and season it with salt and pepper for a real treat. The round marrow that fills the length of the spinal cord is known as midollo spinale, schienale or filone and is considered to be quite a delicacy. It is cut into short sections and fried as part of fritto misto.