Taste and Match is an event organised by Winexplorer to match great food with the excellent
wines they sell to the public and restaurants alike. Hope to see you there as I am serving my
ox-tail alla vaccinara alongside their Podere Le Ripi, 2006 Lupi e sirene Brunello di Montalcino
Tasting notes are below my recipe - I hope you enjoy both!
Ingredients:
1 pigs trotter, small onion, celery stick, black peppercorn, bay leaf
Olive oil
Lard or ham fat
Large amount of chopped parsley (6 tablespoons)
3 cloves garlic
Large chopped red onion
2 chopped carrots
1.5 kg ox-tail, cut into pieces
Seasoned flour
Bottle good quality red wine
Large tin chopped italian tomatoes
Bayleaf
2 celery sticks coarsely chopped
Sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Grated lemon rind
Let's start with the pig trotter! Place the trotter in a pan with cold water and add the small onion,
celery stick, black peppercorns and bay leaf. Heat to just below boiling, reduce the heat and
allow to simmer for an hour and a half. Skim the pot as necessary. Remove the trotter after
1.5 hours, allow to cool until you can remove the bones and then slice into 1.5cm strips.
Season some flour with salt and black pepper, now coat the ox-tails and the cooked pig trotter
strips in the seasoned flour.
Take a large, heavy-bottomed pot and heat the lard or ham fat and brown the ox-tails and pig
trotterstrips over a fairly high heat. Drain and set aside.
In the same pot fry the parsley,onion, garlic and carrot over a medium heat for 10 minutes,
stirring regularly. Add back the browned ox-tails and pig trotter strips. Pour in the wine, a little
of the water used to cook the pig trotter (enough to cover the meat), add the tinned tomatoes
and a bay leaf. Place the lid on the pot and cook for a minimum of 2 hours over a medium/low
heat. Turn the ox-tails every 30 minutes to ensure even cooking.
After 2 hours add the roughly chopped celery and cook for a further 45 minutes. Check the meat
- at this stage it should be falling off the bone. If necessary cook a little longer, but the meat should
be very tender.
Allow the dish to cool completely. Pour off all the sauce and remove as much of the fat from the
sauce as possible. Remove and set aside the deliciously soft carrots and celery. Reduce the sauce
to thicken a little. Take the ox-tail and remove the bone and the cartelage from the top, placing the
meat back into the sauce along with the carrots and celery.
Check for seasoning, and season accordingly. Store in an air-tight container or pot for at least a day
-or even 2, before serving. This dish improves immeasurably with age!
Heat gently on the day of eating, and garnish with gremolata (lemon zest, parsely and salt).
Serve either with a wet polenta or as I did with broad, slippery pappardelle - Enjoy.
The richness, depth and strong flavours of the dish was certain matched the 2006 Podere Le Ripi,
Lupi e sirene, Brunello di Montalcino which has a powerful bouquet, a lot of oak and a spicy
peppery tannic finish. Not a wine for the faint-hearted and should be drunk with rich, strong
flavoured food - in this case it was the perfect match!
Vintage: 2006
Denomination: Brunello di Montalcino Docg
Grape varieties: Sangiovese
First year of production: 2003
Soil: Clay, tuff and siliceous sand, limestone boulders, beige sandstone
Density of vineyards: From 5000 to 11000 plants for hectar
Max yeld per plant: 400 gr
Harvest: Manual during first 10 days of october
Fermentation: 100% oak Vosges casks 15 days, with malolactic
Temperature of fermentation: 28°C to 30°C
Yest: Indigenous
Must contact: 25-30 days
Vinification and maturing: 100% oak Vosges casks and 34 months in oval Vosgi barrels plus 8 months in the bottle
Bottling: August of 2010
Alcohol: 14,5%
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