Braised Oxtail Ragu Recipe on Food52 (2024)

FAQs

What do you eat with braised oxtails? ›

Oxtail is best served with something to soak up the sauce, like pasta or noodles, rice, roasted garlic mashed potatoes, creamy polenta, and crusty bread.

Ingredients in this oxtail ragu recipe.

It calls for oxtail cut into pieces, onion, carrots, lots of celery, peeled tomatoes, pine nuts, raisins, bitter cocoa powder or grated dark chocolate, cloves, white wine, guanciale (pork cheek) or pancetta and parsley.

An oxtail is actually the tail of a steer, which means they are beef. An oxtail has a large bone, and is very gelatinous,which makes them perfect for stewing or braising. They are also often used for making stock.

Most of the Barolos you'll find at the wine shop right now are still a few years from their peak, but that doesn't mean they won't be delicious if drunk today. Just decant them two or three hours before serving. Mature Barolos, although more difficult to track down, will be this dish's best match.

For a super simple and super healthy side to your oxtails, you can't go past steamed broccoli. Broccoli is such a flavorful vegetable that it really requires nothing more than a quick steam to get it plate-ready.

Packed with protein, minerals, and vitamins, oxtail is healthy and nutritious. However, its nutritional crowning jewel is none other than its high collagen content which brings oxtail into the realm of the superfood.

If you want to cut the meat yourself, get cuts like chuck or flank steak, as per the Bolognese tradition, or even a skirt steak (the diaphragm, practically impossible to find at the butchers). The same goes for pork: choose pieces like the thigh which are fatty and tasty.

An authentic ragout is cooked very slowly at a low heat. A ragout is essentially the same as a stew, except that most recipes for ragout are originally French, and often the meat and vegetables are cut into smaller pieces than in a typical stew.

Ragu sometimes includes vegetable chunks, properly prepared Bolognese does not. Ragu typically uses red wine, while Bolognese calls for white. Bolognese uses very little tomato, while ragu sauces often feature tomatoes for most of the sauce's bulk.

Browning your oxtails will not cook the meat. Instead, it will enhance its color and aroma by caramelizing its exterior. Browning beef oxtails in a hot skillet before braising will also add rich depth and flavor to the meat.

Why do you soak oxtail before cooking? ›

By soaking and blanching the oxtail before cooking any impurities are removed. To cook: Oxtail requires long, slow cooking to produce tender, succulent meat.

Oxtail is the tail of a cow. A long time ago, it came from the tail of an ox, but now it comes from the tail of a cow of either sex. The tail is skinned and cut into sections.

Jamaican oxtail is very special due to the infusion of flavors that make this dish come alive. Braised in fresh herbs & spices such as thyme, scallion, scotch bonnet, allspice, and sometimes ginger, this dish is a labor of love that is totally worth it in the end.

Caribbean braised meats like oxtail tend to be rich, so Fowles suggests pairing them with wines like a younger Barolo. “While the fattiness of the oxtail helps tame the strong tannins in a young Barolo, [the wine is] bold enough to stand up to a dish as rich as oxtail,” says Fowles.

In the meantime, if you're looking for something to drink with oxtail, you can't go wrong with Dragon Stout, Cabernet Sauvignon or a heartier Pinot Noir like Belle Glos.

Stewed oxtail cooked with lima beans or lablab —both known as butter beans— or broad beans and served with rice and peas is commonly eaten as a main dish in Jamaica as well as throughout the Caribbean.

Add a cup or so of braised beef to any number of vegetable soups—lentil, minestrone, cabbage—and serve with crusty bread for a complete dinner on a cold day. Add sautéed onions and red peppers and a handful of chopped green olives and you've got a makeshift ropa vieja destined to be a family favorite.

Slow braised Beef Shank is great with pan roasted root vegetables like Potato, Parsnip, Carrot, etc. Toss them lightly in oil and season with herbs, salt, white pepper or however you see fit to match the style you are making the Shank.

Oxtail can be found in Italian, Russian, and British cuisines, as well as Asian, African, Jamaican, and Spanish. It will always be cooked slowly and served as a stew, soup, or braised in a liquid like red wine.