Meat sauce is only better if you have time to sear a few bones. I usually use a chicken thigh, a piece of osso bucco, bits of shoulder, or anything that looks like it was just cut. The bones are good for slow release flavor and tough meat softens after a good few hours of cooking to be tender enough to eat without teeth even. Shopping for the right stuff I got into a situation with myself. Normally I buy organic. I like the idea that the birds and animals are fed what they were meant to eat, instead of pellets of each other and that they have a chance to frolic in the dirt for a while before it all comes to an end. I couldn’t find any organic bones, and at first I thought “oh, give it up and get the regular stuff”, but I couldn’t do it. It wouldn’t give me a even half a leg to stand on when I’m yelling at Ferdinand about thinking outside the box, and creative conflict resolution, and commitment to what he believes in and protecting our earth and all the rest of what he has to listen to when all he wants is to get on with throwing his juice box in the garbage or packing his toys into the closet where his friends won’t find them. I checked the veal chops. They were organic and incredibly expensive, but I bought two. I seasoned them with kosher salt on both sides, seared them off in a hot and heavy pan with olive oil, without moving them or even peeking, until I could see the sides beginning to whiten around the edges. When they were beautifully browned on one side, I flipped them and did the same to the other.
I let them rest and after about fifteen minutes, I sliced most of the meat from the bone, and ate it immediately because I couldn’t stop myself. I cooked up swiss chard with garlic and had my second course as my appetizer. I made my sauce, and when it was ready to go for the long simmer, I added the veal bones and some chicken stock into the sauce. Let it cook for at least an hour. If you wanted, you could even put the whole chops to cook in the sauce after you sear them. Since the chops are delicious at any point, you can cook them for however long you like. The longer they are in the sauce, the more flavor you will get from the bone, but if you are in a rush, you don’t have to wait the two and some hours that you normally would for a joint.