Oxtail ragù by Jamie Oliver.David Loftus
Now is the season to exchange costly dinners out with impressive dishes you can cook for your friends and family at home. It'll save you all money in the long run (if they return the favour, of course) and, really, it's not difficult to create luxurious dishes with minimal effort.
It's a common misconception that you need to have a big, well-equipped kitchen to produce a brilliant meal for a crowd of guests. But really, with a few basic, decent pieces of equipment and kitchen kit, show-stopping meals can be done very simply in a small kitchen. My recipe for an absolutely gorgeous oxtail ragù is a great example of this. It lets the oven do all the hard work, slowly ticking away in one pot to create a decadently rich sauce with fall-off-the-bone tender meat – your guests won't know what's hit them!
Getting quality ingredients is absolutely key here – great meat, good red wine and new-season extra virgin olive oil are up there for me. New-season olive oil has a beautiful green tinge to it and it's going to give you artichokey, grassy, nutty flavours that are just beyond incredible. I've served this dish with polenta here, which I'd definitely recommend – it's tasty, rich and silky smooth, and the perfect receptacle for your ragù. A quick tip: If you don't want to be running around when your guests arrive, you can cook your polenta in advance. When it's reached the right consistency, pour it into a bowl, season it, drizzle it with oil (new-season if you can get it) and cover with parchment paper. Sit it above a pan filled with simmering water on a low heat and that will keep it warm. When you need to use it, simply whip off the paper and serve away.
Servings: 10
Ingredients
2 onions
4 carrots
2 celery stalks
4 sprigs fresh rosemary
Extra virgin olive oil
2 fresh bay leaves
5½ pounds (2½ kilograms) oxtail, chopped into 2-inch (4-centimetre) pieces (get your butcher to do this), omitting the skinny parts of the tail
2 heaping tablespoons plain flour
1 28 ounce (796 mL) can plum tomatoes
1¼ cups Chianti or other Italian red wine
4 cups organic beef stock
1 lemon (for zest only)
Method
Preheat the oven to 425 F. Place a large roasting tray in the oven to heat up.
Peel and finely chop the onions and carrots, trim and finely slice the celery, then pick and chop the rosemary leaves.
Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a casserole dish over a medium-low heat. Add the onions, celery and carrots, stir in the rosemary and bay leaves, and sauté for 15 to 20 minutes, or until softened.
Carefully remove the hot roasting tray from the oven and arrange the oxtail on it. Season with sea salt and black pepper, drizzle with olive oil and toss to coat. Return to the oven for 20 minutes, or until browned and starting to caramelize.
Remove the tray and reduce the oven to 325 F.
When the veg is ready, stir in the flour until it starts to colour, then pour in the tomatoes and wine, breaking up the tomatoes with a wooden spoon. Add the cooked oxtail and the juices from the tray, cover with the stock and stir.
Bring the ragù to a boil, then cover and cook in the oven for about 4 hours, or until the meat is falling off the bone. Stir it every hour or so to stop anything from sticking to the bottom of the pan, and loosen with a splash of water, if needed.
When the ragù is ready, take it out of the oven and leave to cool for 15 minutes.
Remove the oxtail from the pan, then skim off and discard the fat, soaking up any residual fat with paper towel.
Using your hands, strip the meat from the bones (which you can discard). Make sure you don’t go too close to the bone, or shards and sinew could get in. Feel between your fingers to make sure that no gristly bits have been missed. Return the meat to the pan.
Season to taste, stir in a splash or two of olive oil and serve with a grating of lemon zest. I like this with greens and polenta on the side.