FRIDAY NIGHT SUPPER WITH FRIENDS
It's my very good friend Jacky's birthday and I'm cooking a special supper, while her husband is bringing a pudding. For my birthday last Autumn, Jacky and Nick gave me a huge tome of Italian regional food, so it seemed appropriate to cook something from the book for them. I am a huge fan of food which requires little preparation, allowing me plenty of time to socialise with friends who come to dinner, rather than slaving in the kitchen, getting increasingly hot and bothered, and missing out on any choice gossip. I also love slow-cooked food, which can be put in the oven at tea-time, forgotten about for three hours, and then brought out at dinner time. Osso bucco a la Milanese is a classic Italian dish. My mother used to make it in the 1970s, when she was an expert at cordon bleu/Fanny Craddock style cooking, but when I mentioned it to her the day before I made it, she rattled on about flattened veal, provolone cheese and Parma ham. I pointed out that she was thinking of Sa