If a picture is worth a thousand words than often a name can be worth a few. I think we can all guess what the town founders were thinking when they named Boring, Oregon. Shoofly Pie must have been so sweet a treat that flies were regularly shoo’d away from it. And so too this Coda alla Vaccinara, which is oxtail cooked in the butcher’s style, tells a story.

Back in the days before high-speed trains, cell phones and Amazon Fresh grocery delivery, cattle were divvied up in Rome along class lines. The best cuts went to the nobility. The second “quarto” was sold to the clergy, the third to the bourgeoisie, and the final fourth went to the military.

All that was left for the lower classes, including the butchers and slaughterhouse workers themselves, was the “quinto quarto” or the fifth fourth. From the internal organs, entrails, and off-cuts like oxtail they worked with developed a facet of the city’s cuisine that still holds a special place for many Romans today.

As the name suggests, oxtail comes from the tail of a cow. The string of short knobby bones attached to each other with connective tissue and tendons, much like the spine, give tails their suppleness, allowing cows to move them so freely. It’s a fatty and tough cut of meat that requires low and slow cooking. Since flavor is stored in fat, as the oxtails cook, the fat and connective tissues and tendons essentially melt, imparting their flavor to the sauce while the meat becomes fork-tender.

Given the dish has survived for centuries, there are many variations. Some are cooked on the stove top, others in the oven. Some are cooked in a roasting pan without a lid (in the oven) while others are cooked in a Dutch oven closed with a lid. All the recipes I’ve seen call for tomatoes, red wine and celery. Some use celery in a mirepoix at the front-end of cooking, while others add celery during the last hour of braising to cut the richness of the dish.

The oxtail stew I had in Trastevere at Taverna Trulissa was labeled “in the traditional style” and was finished with pine nuts, raisins and chocolate for a touch of sweetness. I’ve noticed this is other Italian dishes. Adding the opposite flavor profile to crate a more balanced dish.

This recipe is adapted from my new favorite cookbook, Tasting Rome.

Coda alla Vaccinara
Serves 4 to 6

2 1/2 ounces bacon fat or 3 tablespoons olive oil
3 1/3 pounds oxtail, cut into segments
Salt
1 yellow onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, smashed
3 celery stalks, divided

• Dice one celery stalk to use with onions and garlic at the beginning of cooking
• Cut remaining stalks into 3-inch pieces and then cut pieces into three thin slivers

5 whole cloves
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 cup red wine
1 (28-ounce) can whole peeled tomatoes
Up to 6 cups beef broth
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup pine nuts
1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder

Bring oxtail to room temperature and salt generously on both sides. Render bacon fat or heat olive oil in a large Dutch oven large enough to hold all the oxtail over medium high heat. When ready – a flick of water into the pan should sizzle when the fat or oil is heated enough – place oxtails into the pan and brown on each side. You may need to do two batches because you don’t want to crowd the pan as you brown the meat.

Once the oxtails are browned, remove them from the pan and add onion and diced celery to the pan. Sauté until slightly tender, 5 minutes, and then add the garlic and cloves and sauté another 5 -10 minutes, until the onions are translucent. Add the tomato paste and stir to combine. Cook another 5 minutes and add the red wine to deglaze the pan, scraping up any brown bits. Then add the tomatoes and stir to combine.

Return the oxtail to the pan and cover with beef broth. If the oxtails are still exposed, add water rather than more broth. Cover the pan and cook, 5 to 6 hours until oxtails are falling off the bone and the sauce is the very definition of delicious.

During the last half hour of cooking, add the raisins, pine nuts, cocoa and remaining celery.

The dish is best prepared the day before and is terrific served as a sauce for gnocchi.