Lampredotto (1 kg)

1 onion
1 stick of celery
1 carrot
2 ripe tomatoes
parsley
basil
salt and pepper

This is not a recipe but just some advices to cook a tasty Florentine-style lampredotto. Add salt into the water when it starts to boil and then drop in the tripe with tomatoes, onion, carrot, celery, basil, parsley, and pepper. Cook over for about 1 hour. When is ready, serve the tripe immediately with salsa verde (green sauce) or some pickles. Then cut the tripe into thin slices and put it in a special bread we call semelle, which has been dipped first in warm broth. Add a generous pinch of salt and pepper. The popular lampredotto roll is ready!

*Tips
lampredotto is the dark brown tripe of the fourth and last cow’s stomach: the abomaso (abomasums).

TRIPPA ALLA FIORENTINA Florentine-style tripe – 4 people

1 onion
1 stick of celery
1 carrot
2 ripe tomatoes
parsley
basil
salt and pepper

The recipe is very simple. First, put finely chopped onion, carrot, and celery to fry in a saucepan with 6 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil. When they get brown and tender, add tripe finger-wide strips, and let it take flavour for 10 min. Then add peeled tomatoes, salt, and pepper. Put the cover on the saucepan and cook over a very low heat for 20 min. Before switching off the heat, add 2 or 3 tablespoons of Parmesan and keep cooking until the sauce has reduced almost completely. The tripe is served hot and with some other spoons of Parmesan.

*Tips
In this recipe, use the best parts of the tripe only, such as the rumine (the rumen is the first of a cow’s four stomachs), or the reticolo (the second cow’s stomach). In Tuscany, the tripe is called croce (blanket tripe) or cuffia (honeycomb tripe). The raw tripe must be washed repeatedly before you start to cook it. And the tripe left over? There is a very good recipe called pasta e broccoli con trippa (broccoli and tripe pasta) I borrowed from an American cooking book. You have just to cook pasta and then add the tripe together with boiled broccoli finely chopped and Parmesan.