Coda
Alla Vaccinara, iconic
symbol of Roman cuisine,
is one of those heart warming soothing winter dishes that you dream
of and crave when cold weather sets in. Quick to prepare and slow to
cook, it is a humble unpretentious dish made with an inexpensive cut
of meat. Simple as it is, the recipe gloriously enhances the ox tail
with a subtly
bitter sweet
finishing
sauce. Unfortunately many Rome restaurants, even those specialising
in Roman cuisine, skip the final step of the original dish. The dish
is still excellent even without it I must admit, but once you've
tasted the real thing, the tomato-only version feels
incomplete.
Coda alla Vaccinara was born at the historic
trattoria Checchino
dal 1887,
a place that is closely entwined with - if not wholly responsible for
- the humble origins of what is now seen as traditional Roman
cuisine. Checchino is located in what was once the slaughter house
district of Rome, the now trendy Testaccio area, and though it is a
very elegant dining venue today, originally it was just a modest inn.
It first opened in 1870, and served wine along with bread,
cheese, olives and salamis, until the original Mariani - the
same family still run the restaurant today
-
obtained a cooking licence in 1887 and started cooking for the
workers on the slaughter house construction site on his doorstep.
When the abattoir opened in 1890, Mariani started cooking for
the Vaccinari
-
the butchers - who worked there. At that time, the butchers were
given some piece of offal as a little bonus along with their wages,
and they took this along to Checchino to pay (almost) in kind for the
wine they drank. And this was the birth of Rome's many offal based
dishes, the birth of the Roman
cuisine of "the fifth quarter".
They still serve the original recipe that the Mariani family
invented at Checchino and that is the recipe I am sharing here today.
For
two people you will need
1.2
kilos of oxtail - a little over 2 1/2 pounds - chopped up into
chunks - the butcher should do this for you
1 kilo of peeled plum
tomatoes - a little over 2 pounds
a small onion
a
single clove of garlic
3 sweet cloves (I double up, I like
the flavour!)
3 tbsp olive oil (I use only one)
50 g salt
cured Guanciale (pig jowl) or use Italian Pancetta - a little under 2
ounces
a small glass of dry white wine
salt and
pepper
Preparation
Trim
excess fat from the
oxtail,
then wash and pat dry.
Chop the Guanciale
as finely as you can, then pound it in a pestle and mortar. Place
this with the olive
oil
at
the bottom of a casserole dish, ideally a terracotta or clay pot for
even cooking. Soften a while, then add the pieces of oxtail and brown
slowly over moderate heat.
Peel the garlic
and
remove any green shoot in the middle. Peel the onion
and finely mince half of it. Stud the second half with the sweet
cloves.
Add these to the pot, season with salt and pepper and cook for a few
minutes, then add the glass of wine
and cover.
Cook
on low heat for about 15 minutes and during this time put the peeled
plum tomatoes
(canned tomatoes) through a sieve or food mill to catch any remaining
bits of peel or seeds, which you discard. You can use ready sieved
tomato passata instead if you can get it and if you prefer. Add the
tomatoes to the oxtail, cover and cook for an hour, always on low
heat.
After the hour is up, add enough water to the casserole
to completely cover the oxtail pieces. Cover and leave to simmer
gently for 4 to 6 hours or until
the meat is clearly coming away from the bones.
Place
the casserole in a cool place and then in the fridge overnight.
The
next day
remove
all the fat from the surface until you reach the
shimmering
shiny jelly
covering
your yummy pieces of oh-so-tasty oh-so-tender oxtail.
Part
one: done! The best is yet to come though, go back to read about
the wonderful chocolatey finishing sauce that crowns this dish!
