Tagliatelle with Oxtail Tomato Sauce and Orange Gremolata

The dough for the pasta can of course also be made with the food processor, but I prefer to knead the dough by hand. Because the quantities are always only approximate. The amount of flour also depends on the size of the eggs, etc.

While you knead the dough by hand, you will quickly notice whether the dough is getting too dry or too moist and you can easily take countermeasures immediately. If you've made pasta dough a few times, you can tell very quickly when the pasta dough is good. But here too, a good pasta dough takes time, it is not kneaded in 2 minutes. But the manual work is worth it.

I have already tried a lot with pasta dough and I no longer get any oil on the pasta dough, it is so much easier to process and the noodle absorbs the sauce much better afterwards. And I have also made the experience that it can be processed much better and becomes much more supple if you do NOT leave it in the refrigerator but at room temperature.

When cooking, noodles need space in the pot and they need to be able to move around easily. It is said that for every 100 g of pasta, one liter of water. So it's better to weigh the pasta dough beforehand. With 200 g of flour you should consider that there are also eggs, so the weight will be over 200 g.

Then strain the pasta through a sieve. It is advisable to collect approx. 50 - 100 ml of the pasta water and then add this to the sauce. The starch it contains also binds the sauce, making it easier for the noodles to absorb the sauce. NO oil in the pasta water.

Put the flour together with the salt in a bowl, add the eggs and knead with your hands to form an elastic dough, wrap it in cling film and let it rest for at least 30 minutes at room temperature.

Then roll out the dough thinly with the pasta machine and cut into tagliatelle with the tagliatelle attachment. Then cook them in sufficiently salted water until al dente.

Heat some olive oil in a saucepan and fry the oxtail pieces very vigorously on all sides. Then take it out again and add the shallot, garlic, leek, carrots and celery and roast well. After about 5 minutes dust everything with powdered sugar, add the tomato paste and cinnamon.

Now roast vigorously for another 2 minutes, don't forget to stir. Then deglaze with the orange juice, beef stock and tomatoes. Add the rosemary and thyme and season with salt, pepper and pimento d'Espelette.

Now add the oxtail pieces again and let simmer for at least 5 hours over a very low heat and with the pot closed. Then remove the oxtail pieces, let them cool down a little, remove the bones and tendons from the meat, dice and put back into the sauce. Now you can continue to simmer as needed.

Just before serving, season to taste again and then dissolve the chocolate in it, but the sauce should no longer boil.

Put the orange peel, thinly peeled with the peeler, the cloves of garlic and the bunch of flat parsley in an electric chopper (moulinette) and chop very finely.

Strain the tagliatelle while collecting some of the pasta water. Add the pasta water to the sauce, stir. Arrange the tagliatelle on a pasta plate, pour the sugo over it. Now you can eat and if you like, you can add the orange gremolata.