Testaccio, Rome, Lazio
Rome's greatest offal preparation: oxtail slow-braised for 4-5 hours in celery, onion, garlic, cloves, and wine until collapse-tender, then finished with the characteristic 'quinto quarto' addition of cocoa, pine nuts, sultanas, and celery — a sweet-savoury finish that marks the dish as Roman and distances it from all other braised oxtail. The name refers to the vaccinaro (slaughterhouse workers) of the Testaccio neighbourhood who took oxtail as part of their payment in kind. The collagen from the tail creates a self-thickening, gelatinous sauce.
Deeply beefy and gelatinous from oxtail collagen, fragrant with celery and clove, with the unexpected bittersweet finish of cocoa and sultanas — Rome's most complex braised dish
The oxtail must be cut between the vertebrae and soaked in cold water for 2 hours to remove excess blood before cooking. The braising must be at a genuine bare simmer for 4-5 hours — any higher heat produces chewy cartilage rather than the required collapse-tenderness. The celery is the defining aromatic (five or six large stalks) and must be present in abundance — not just a hint. The cocoa, pine nuts, and sultanas added in the last 30 minutes are not optional — they are what makes the dish Roman.
A pressure cooker can reduce the active cooking time to 90 minutes — seal in a hot pan, then pressure-cook with all aromatics. The dish is significantly better the next day when the gelatine has set the sauce to a trembling consistency and all flavours have merged. Serve with crusty Roman bread (never pasta) — the bread is for sauce-mopping only.
Not soaking the oxtail beforehand — produces a livery, muddy flavour. Rushing the cooking at higher heat produces chewy, unyielding cartilage. Omitting the sweet-sour cocoa-raisin-pine nut addition makes it a generic braised oxtail rather than coda alla vaccinara. Not skimming the fat that rises during braising produces a greasy, heavy sauce.
La Cucina Romana — Ada Boni