I love Oxtail, it is such an underused meat; yet one of the tastiest. It has a rich taste unlike any other and when cooked slowly just melts in your mouth.

I use to order this dish in an Italian restaurant in Hong Kong when I went on business trips, it was always one of my favourites.  This needs a few hours to cook but it is very simple and looks and tastes amazing when finished…

Serves 4

Ingredients:

1 kilo oxtail

8 shallots peeled and halved

2 garlic cloves grated

1 Tbsp. red pesto

1 heap tsp paprika

1 tin good quality tomatoes

1 large glass red wine

2 heap tsp soft brown sugar

A handful fresh thyme

3 rosemary sprigs

2 bay leaves

1/2 Tbsp. runny honey

1 1/2 tsp sea salt

1 Tbsp. plain flour

Olive oil for frying

1 celery stick

1 carrot

Fresh lasagna sheets (I used a pack and a half)

(Extra virgin olive oil & Parmesan cheese to serve)

Method:

Heat the oven up to the highest setting.

In a plastic bag pop in the oxtail, flour and salt, shake the bag until all of the meat is coated. Set aside.

In a frying pan heat a little oil and soften the shallots, once nearly cooked add the garlic and cook for another minute.  Transfer this to an oven dish along with the thyme and rosemary sprigs and the bay leaves.

In the same pan add a little extra oil and brown the oxtail until golden on all sides.

Place these into the oven dish.

Tuck in the carrot and celery chunks.

Now keep the frying pan on the hob on high, pour in the wine to de-glaze the pan, scraping all the sides.  Then add the tin tomatoes, pesto, paprika and sugar.

Let this bubble away for  a few minutes then add to the oven dish, try to cover all of the meat.

I also added a little bit of water so that the liquid is about 1/3 of the way up the meat.

Cover with foil and place into the oven.  Cook on high for 20 minutes then turn down to 180 degrees and cook until the meat is tender.  This should take about 2 hours.

After this time, remove the foil and pop back into the oven on high for 15 minutes to get a good colour to the sauce and meat.

Once cooked remove from the oven, then carefully remove the oxtail from the ragu sauce onto a chopping board, then with a fork shred the meat away from the bone, discarding any bones or fat.  Set aside.

Back to the ragu; remove any sprigs of the herbs, the bay leaves, carrots and celery from the sauce, then place the oven dish straight onto the hob and let this bubble away on a gentle simmer. You can scrape it back into the frying pan if you like.  Drizzle in the honey, taste and check if it needs more salt.

While that is simmering away take the lasagna and cut into wide strips; about an inch wide.  Boil some salted water and place in the pasta and cook for around 5 minutes, or according to the instructions on the packet.

Drain your pasta but don’t throw away the pasta water, pour a couple of spoonfuls into the ragu to loosen it up.

Add the meat back into the ragu and mix well.

Mix the ragu into the pappardelle pasta, then drizzle with extra virgin olive oil.

Serve up with some thyme leaves sprinkled over the top and parmesan cheese.

Enjoy xx

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