Chef Massimo Falsini’s passion for food has taken him around the world. He started working at the famed cacio e pepe powerhouse Felice a Testaccio in Rome, then helmed the uber-famous Harry’s Bar, opened Ferrari World in Abu Dhabi, and now runs Caruso’s, a coastal Italian restaurant at the luxurious Rosewood Miramar in Montecito, California.
Throughout these travels and kitchens, Falsini has compiled binders upon binders of recipes—but he always likes to turn back to his hometown of Rome, where oxtail ragu is ubiquitous. Here’s the chef’s specialty for you try in your own kitchen.
Chef Massimo Falsini
Oxtail Ragù - Sugo di Coda by Chef Massimo Falsini
Ingredients:
Yields about 4.4 pounds of cooked ragù
3 kg oxtail cut through the tail joints, 2-2½ inch thick (ask your butcher)
25 g sea salt
50 g celery
50 g yellow onions
1 kg San Marzano Tomato in can
1 lt red wine
750 ml chicken stock
1 lt filtered water
300 ml veal stock
100 g grapeseed oil
10 g garlic
1 bay leaf
15 g thyme
Directions:
Place the oxtail in a large mixing bowl, add salt and mix well.
Pre-heat a skillet and add grapeseed oil.
Start searing the oxtail in the grapeseed oil (give it a nice searing all the way around).
Place the oxtail in a 6-inch-deep roasting pan.
After all the oxtail has been seared, use the same skillet and add the onions; cook for 6 minutes.
Follow the onions with the celery, garlic, thyme, and carrots and cook 75% through.
Deglaze the red wine in the skillet and cook the wine for about 7 minutes.
Add the veal stock, water, and chicken stock.
Let it come to a boil then bring down to a simmer and cook for about 8 minutes.
Remove the skillet from the fire and transfer the liquid into the roasting pan.
Add the San Marzano tomato, crushed by hand.
Cover the roasting pan with parchment paper and then cover it with aluminum foil.
Set oven at 200 degrees Fahrenheit and place roasting pan in oven overnight for 10 hours.
Check oxtail the next day to make sure it’s tender and the meat falls off the bone easily .
Play the oxtail on a sheet tray so it can cool down.
Strain the braising liquid using a sieve.
Let the liquid cool down in order to remove extra fat that will form on top. Then preserve the liquid.
Once the oxtail has cooled down, start removing the meat from the bones (be careful of little bones).
Place the “clean meat” on a casserole and add some of the braising liquid.
Re-heat to avoid drying out.
Serve on top of freshly cooked gnocchi with Tuscan Pecorino.
Buon appetito!