Coda alla Vaccinara con Pinoli e Uvetta Variante Barocca

Render the lardo in a wide, heavy braising pot over medium heat until the fat runs clear and the solids are golden. Remove the solids. Working in batches, brown the oxtail sections in the rendered fat on all sides until deeply coloured — the meat must be mahogany, not merely sealed.

Reduce the heat. Add the onion, chopped celery and garlic to the pot. Cook gently in the lard, stirring, until the soffritto is soft and translucent — no colour, no rawness.

Return the oxtail to the pot. Pour in the red wine and allow it to reduce by half. Add the crushed tomatoes and enough water or stock to nearly cover the meat. Season with salt. Cover tightly, reduce the heat to the lowest sustainable simmer, and braise for 3 hours. This is where the dish lives or dies: the oxtail must be completely tender — the meat yielding freely from the bone at the touch of a spoon — before any baroque enrichments are introduced. Adding them to under-braised meat produces dissolved raisins, bitter chocolate and stringy celery.

Uncover the pot. Add the blanched celery lengths, pine nuts, squeezed raisins and candied citrus peel. Stir gently to distribute. Continue to cook, uncovered, at a gentle simmer for 20 minutes — the celery must soften but retain its structure; the pine nuts must remain distinct.

Grate the dark chocolate directly into the pot. Stir to incorporate and cook for a further 20 minutes uncovered, reducing the sauce as needed. The sauce is ready when it coats the back of a spoon and holds a clean line — the chocolate should register as depth and gloss only, not as a discernible chocolate flavour.

Taste and adjust salt. Rest the pot, covered, off the heat for 10 minutes before serving. The surface should carry a dark, glossy sheen; the enrichments distributed evenly through the sauce.