Slowly cooked oxtail with thick macaroni

A delicious and hearty dish!! Comfort Greek food at its best! It is not so common to cook such a recipe in Greece without any tomato in, so to have a rich sauce to mop up... But it is a very nice alternative to the classic stews. Still, though, you could add some colour if you want using 2 tbsp of tomato paste or 1 tin of grated tomatoes. In that case you should double the amount of balsamic vinegar

Recipe from "COOK BOOK" magazine of "ETHNOS" newspaper

Ingredients (for 4 people):
1Kg of oxtail, cut in about 3cm pieces
1 packet of thick macaroni (Bucatini or thicker type are great)
1-2 tbsp of olive oil
½ tea-cup of orange juice
2 medium yellow onions, finely chopped
1/4 tea-cup of white dry wine
1 slice of bacon, finely chopped
½ tsp of ground cloves
1/4 tsp of ground nutmeg
1 tbsp of balsamic vinegar
1/4 tea-cup of Greek Kefalotyri cheese, grated (or other salty hard cheese)
2 tbsp of butter
salt
pepper

Method:
Season the oxtail pieces very well with salt and pepper.

In a spacious frying pan warm the oil in medium-high heat and sauté the meat until well coloured on all sides. Add the onion and the bacon and sauté, stirring frequently, for another 5 minutes. Pour over with the wine and when the alcohol is evaporated add the orange juice, the allspice and the nutmeg. Stir well with a wooden spoon and take the pan off the heat.

Transfer the food in a large pot. Add 1½ cup of water, season again with salt and pepper. Leave the food to cook in medium-low heat for about 3½ hours, making sure that there is enough liquid all way through cooking .

When the meat is ready transfer it with a slotted spoon on a large dish and debone it.

Pass the sauce through a fine sieve (so to discard any possible tiny bones from the meat) and transfer it back to the pot. Add in the pot the balsamic vinegar and the grated cheese and boil the sauce in medium-high heat for about 3 minutes, stirring constantly, until it is reduced a bit and quite thicken.

Transfer the boneless meat (along with any accumulated juices) back to the pot, stir gently and keep warm in very low heat.

In the meantime, boil the pasta in a large pot with plenty of salted water according to your preference. When ready, drain well in a colander and transfer back in the pot.

In the pot where the pasta boiled, melt the butter and when it starts getting frothy add the macaroni and sauté stirring with a large fork. Do this firmly but carefully so not to "break" the pasta. *** I know that the Italians would get mad seeing this... but in Greece (the old good days when people were not so cautious about calories, cholesterol etc) we used to "sauté" the pasta in this way using butter... I can't describe to you the delicious flavour the pasta gets from this!! You don't need to do it every time but every now and then just to get this extra flavour...

Serve immediately topping the macaroni with the meat and its sauce (and plenty of crusty bread...).