Rigatoni with Oxtail Ragù 

The rigatoni with oxtail are a first course of the poor tradition, whose origins are lost in the most humble alleys of ancient Rome. Despite the cheapness of the ingredients, it is a dish with an important preparation, which tells all the imagination in the kitchen of those who used to draw the maximum taste from a few ingredients. This is a typical recipe of Roman cuisine that involves the use of the famous "coda alla vaccinara" to season pasta. 

Ingredients

500 g rigatoni

1kg oxtail

1 celery stalk

1 onion

1 carrot

tomato paste

1 l brown ox background

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1 glass of red wine

Pepper

salt

Procedure

To prepare the rigatoni with oxtail sauce, clean the vegetables, chop them finely and brown them in a saucepan with oil. Next add the oxtail previously cut into pieces of 5 cm and add salt and pepper. Sauté the oxtail on all sides, then add a tablespoon of tomato paste and mix.

Pour the wine and deglaze the cooking liquid, then cover with the brown ox bottom and let it simmer for about three hours. Remove the pieces of oxtail from the heat and keep them warm, then strain the sauce and pour it into a pan. Boil the pasta in plenty of boiling salted water, drain them al dente and sauté them in a pan with the sauce to flavor them. Finally, arrange the pasta on the plates and serve with portions of oxtail.

Notes

The oxtail is a key element of traditional Roman cuisine, made up of a certain variety of styles and which tells, through recipes of all kinds, the cultural melting pot that has always been the capital, since the time of its foundation, a crucial node of trade not only commercial. The oxtail represents a whole class of the people of medium-low extraction but closely linked to the universe of meat: butchers, animal traders, breeders. It is here that the oxtail finds its origin, together with other dishes made with the so-called fifth quarters, the "waste" parts such as tail, entrails, legs.