Coda alla vaccinara
An old, classic roman stew. Still popular, but not very modern. The original version clearly has ancient roots, taking the unusual combination of spices into consideration: Pine nuts, raisins, cinnamon and generous amounts of celery give an extravagant aroma, not suited for all tongues. Many places you will get a modern version served, aiming for a broader audience: The pine nuts (which is also rather expensive) and raisins are left out, and often more tomato is added.
Most of the ingredients can be varied to your liking, but the celery should always play a major role, even though I have seen recipes with only one stalk. I have in contrast to that seen a statement, that the amount of celery should be 1,5 x the weight of the oxtails weight!
If you go all inn for the most aromatic and original version, you can season the stew with dark chocolate, that will go perfectly hand in hand with the unusual aromas.
This is a classic quinto quarto dish, made of the cheaper ‘fifth quarter’ cuts which is everything not around the fourth legs: Tail, head and offal. These parts were often a part of the salary for the workers in the big butcheries Southern part of Rome, or sold to poorer citizens. An entire kitchen culture raised around these fifth quarter cuts in Rome, like rigatoni con pajata and trippa alla romana.
Ingredients
4 persons
Cooking time : 3 hrs.
Ingredients:
1,5 kg. oxtails
100 gr. pork belly or guanciale
2 tbs pork fat or olive oil
2 carrots
4 stalks celery
2 bundles parsley
3 dl dry white wine
3 tablespoons concentrated tomato pure
3 cloves garlic
1 tbs strong paprika
½ teaspoon cinnamon
Wash the tail parts under cold running water, to remove any blood.
Coarsely chop the lard and set it aside. Chop the garlic, onion, carrot and 1 celery stalk and set aside. Finely chop the parsley separately.
In a large pot put the fat inn and the and brown the pork pieces. If using guanciale, just fry it on a hot, dry pan with no oil added. The Guanciale fat will do the job. If you use bacon or pancetta add a bit of oil to the pan first.
Put a pot with lightly salted water to boil, and blanche the tails for 5 minutes. Remove the tails from the water and dab them dry with a clean cloth. Preserve the left-over water.
Remove the pork from the frying pan with a slotted spoon and put aside. Put the heat up, and brown the tails on all sides. Add the chopped carrot and onion to the pan, and fry them at medium heat. Add the chopped parsley and cook for another 5 mins over low to medium heat. The onions must not get browned.
At this point, add salt and pepper and deglaze with white wine and let it cook over low heat for a bit, before adding the tomatoes. Put the lid on, and let it simmer for 2 hours.
When there is half an hour left of the cooking time, add the last three slized celery.
If during cooking, the dish should dry out too much, add a a bit of the water the tails were blanched in.
Meanwhile, clean the two ribs of white celery, which will be used for the sauce, from their filaments and divide them into small pieces13. Blanch the celery in boiling water for a couple of minutes, drain and keep them a side.
Check the tail: the meat will be ready when it starts to come off the bone.
Tips
Don’t underestimate these tails, they tend to hold on to the meat for a long time. I had them once simmering to 2 ½ hours, and the meat was nowhere near letting the bone go. The rule of thumb here is rather one hour too much, than one hour too little. You will almost certainly get a reheated dish served at the restaurants (how can you prepare a fresh one in less than 3 hrs..?) and reheating will do absolutely no harm to this dish – actually it is the contrary.
Serve this with a good rustic bread, that can soak up the magnificent sauce.
If you cannot get pork belly, guanciale or pancetta, use bacon instead.
The dish works really fine without pine nuts and raisins, for a more modern version.