Coda alla Vaccinara is a traditional dish from Rome that’s oxtail stewed in tomato sauce with lardo, wine, garlic, and the holy trinity of Italian stews (onion, carrot, celery). Some recipes embody extra ‘unique’ substances like raisins, pine nuts, cinnamon, cloves, and even cocoa powder. It may be served in two programs: beginning with a primo piatto, pasta akin to rigatoni with the sauce, adopted by a secondo of the meat with some sauce. The conventional recipe and a sous vide model are already on my weblog, in addition to the primo piatto. For a extra festive model, I made a decision to make ravioli with the meat as filling. I cooked the oxtail sous vide, however you might additionally cook dinner it on the stovetop or within the oven after which comply with the identical process as I did to make the ravioli. To make the sauce even richer, I used the bones and different scraps to make a inventory, diminished it, and added it to the sauce. You might additionally add the diminished inventory to the filling, however I didn’t have time for that (as I used to be already folding the ravioli whereas the inventory was nonetheless in progress). The dish is so wealthy that I might not advocate to serve this as a primary course; a average portion is extra gratifying.
As I wanted to slice the lardo, this was additionally alternative to indicate off the most recent addition to my kitchen: a Berkel slicing machine.
Elements
For six-8 servings (makes about 40 ravioli) as primo piatto
- 1.2 kilo (2.6 lbs) oxtail
- 100 grams (3.5 oz) lardo, thinly sliced after which minced
- 1 can (400 grams/14 oz) peeled tomatoes, pureed within the meals processor
- 250 ml (1 cup) dry white wine
- 100 grams minced onion (1 onion)
- 100 grams minced celery (1 1/2 celery sticks)
- 100 grams minced carrot (1 carrot)
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 3 cloves (optionally available)
- 1 cinnamon stick (optionally available)
- 250 ml (1 cup) beef inventory (optionally available)
- contemporary pasta dough made with 3 eggs and about 300 grams (2 cups) Italian 00 flour
- olive oil
- salt and freshly floor black pepper
- 50 grams pecorino romano cheese + extra for garnish
- 2 Tbsp minced contemporary flat leaf parsley
Directions
Slice the lardo thinly, then mince it along with the carrot, onion, and celery. I used my meals processor for this.
Season the oxtail items with salt and brown them in olive oil over excessive warmth. Set them apart on a plate to chill off as soon as they’ve been browned on all sides.
Don’t clear the pan after browning…
…however add the minced onion, celery, carrot, and lardo to the pan with the drippings from browning the oxtail.
Stir over medium-high warmth till the greens are dry and stat to show golden brown, then add the minced garlic.
Stir for one more minute, then add 250 ml of white wine.
Scrape with a picket spatula to get the entire taste caught to the pan into the sauce, and permit the wine to be diminished.
Add a cinnamon inventory and three cloves, if utilizing.
When the wine has evaporated, add the tomatoes.
Add the meat inventory, if utilizing. If you’ll use the bones from the oxtail to make inventory, it’s not actually mandatory so as to add extra beef inventory.
(If not cooking sous vide, this the place to return the meat to the pan. The meat ought to be lined by the liquid and lined. Simmer the meat on the stovetop or within the oven till tender, which is able to take a number of hours.)
Enable the sauce to simmer over medium-high warmth…
…till it’s fairly thick. Style and regulate the seasoning with salt and freshly floor black pepper. Because the lardo is already fairly salty, you could not want so as to add any salt.
There are three strategies to hoover seal the meat with the sauce for sous vide cooking:
- Enable sauce and meat to chill utterly, then vacuum seal with a chamber vacuum sealer.
- Enable sauce and meat to chill utterly, then vacuum seal with an exterior vacuum sealer (this could work for those who diminished the sauce by sufficient, in any other case you could have to freeze the sauce first).
- Put the sauce and meat in a ziploc bag and use the water displacement technique to seal it with minimal air (no want to relax meat and sauce for this selection).
Then cook dinner the oxtail sous vide for twenty-four hours at 74C/165F. (You might additionally cook dinner it for longer to make it simpler to separate the meat from the bones and connective tissue, or cook dinner it for 4 days at 60C/140F to maintain the meat medium relatively than nicely finished. However I don’t assume that’s well worth the lengthy cooking time for this preparation because the meat is chopped and blended with the sauce anyway.)
Pour the contents of the bag right into a bowl and permit to chill till it’s not too sizzling to deal with.
Decide the meat off the bones and connective tissue along with your fingers. That is the toughest a part of working with oxtail (which is able to grow to be simpler for those who cook dinner for an extended time). Reserve the sauce.
Put the bones and connective tissue in a stockpot or stress cooker.
Cowl with water, carry to stress, and stress cook dinner for two hours, or carry to a boil, and simmer, lined for 4 hours.
Afterwards, pressure the inventory into a large pan, carry to a boil…
…and scale back till you’ve gotten solely 250 ml (1 cup) or so left of concentrated inventory.
Mix the meat you picked off the bones in a meals processor along with a ladle (about 1/2 cup or 120 ml) of the sauce and 50 grams of freshly grated pecorino romano cheese. As an alternative of including the sauce, you might additionally add among the concentrated inventory.
Course of utilizing the “pulse” perform of the meals processor till the meat is minced however not pureed.
Switch the filling right into a bowl, cowl, and refrigerate for at the very least half an hour to permit it to agency up. Make contemporary pasta dough utilizing my directions, and permit that to relaxation for at the very least half an hour within the fridge as nicely.
When the filling and pasta dough have rested sufficiently, roll out the pasta dough thinly, and make ravioli in keeping with my directions.
You can also make the ravioli in any form or dimension you want. Keep in mind that smaller means extra work. The whole lot as much as right here could be ready upfront.
To complete the dish, mix the reserved sauce with the diminished inventory, carry to a boil, and scale back it a bit extra if wanted. Style and regulate the seasoning if wanted with salt and freshly floor black pepper.
Convey a big pot of water to a boil. When the water boils, add salt and the ravioli. Boil them for two minutes solely.
When the ravioli have been boiled, raise them out of the pot with a strainer, and add them to the sauce. Gently toss the ravioli with the sauce, till they’re lined throughout with the sauce.
Serve the ravioli without delay on preheated plates, garnished with minced parsley, and freshly grated pecorino romano.
Wine pairing
This can work nicely with a full-bodied Italian pink wine akin to a Chianti Classico Riserva.
