Trippa alla fiorentina (Florentine Style Tripe)

It’s seems many of us have lost our taste for “variety meats” these days. It wasn’t that long ago—I remember well into my young adulthood—that you could find fresh veal and chicken liver, kidneys and yes, tripe in more or less any supermarket. Now you have to search them out and, if you do find them, they’ll be frozen. For fresh variety meats, chances are you’ll need to go to an Asian or Latino market. Tripe in particular is well worth the search, I think. If you have any qualms about this kind of eating, know that tripe has a much milder flavor than other variety meats. Indeed, tripe can be very mild depending on what type you’re talking about (see Notes below). And it’s low in calories, yet packed with protein and all sorts of vitamins and minerals. Traditional Italian cookery has a wide variety of tripe recipes. Each region, it seems, has its own way of preparing it. We’ve already featured trippa alla romana, Roman style tripe, as well as buseca, the hearty Milanese tripe and bean stew, as well as trippa con patate, tripe and potatoes. Today we’re going to look at perhaps the simplest way to make tripe in the Italian repertoire, trippa alla fiorentina, Tripe in the Florentine style. Pre-cooked tripe is simmered in tomato sauce, then served topped with grated parmigiano-reggiano. Simple, yes, like much Tuscan cookery, but for tripe-lovers like myself, very appealing. If you have misgivings about tripe but are willing to give it a try, this might be the place to start. Ingredients 1 kilo (2 lbs) pre-cooked tripe, cut into thin strips (see Notes)1 medium onion1 medium carrot1 stalk celery800g (28 oz) aka one large small can, peeled tomatoesOlive oilSalt and pepperTo finish: Freshly grated parmigiano-reggianoDirections Chop the onion, carrot and celery together finely into a near paste. (A food processor makes short work of this, but a sharp knife and cutting board will do quite nicely as well.) In a pot, preferably made of terracotta or enameled cast iron, sauté the onion, carrot and celery in abundant olive oil, along with a pinch of salt, over a gentle flame until tender. Turn up the heat a bit and add the tripe strips and given them a good stir to coat them with the scented oil and aromatic vegetables. Let the tripe simmer over moderate heat for 5 minutes or so. Add the tomatoes, which you will have either crushed with your hands or passed through a food mill, and stir again. Lower the heat, cover the pot partially, and let the tripe and tomatoes simmer until the tripe is tender and the sauce has nicely reduced. The total cooking time will depend on how fully the pre-cooked tripe is, as little as 30-45 minutes or as long as 2 hours. If things are drying out, add a bit of water. Conversely, if the tripe is tender but the sauce a bit thin, uncover the pot and raise the heat so the sauce can reduce. Serve your trippa alla fiorentina with a nice topping of freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano. Notes on Trippa alla fiorentina In its raw state, tripe is extremely tough, needing multiple hours of cooking. Back in the day, people would tenderize the tripe by striking it against a rock, which must have been a colorful sight! These days, tripe is invariably sold precooked. In Italy, tripe is generally sold almost entirely pre-cooked. It only needs a further 30 minutes or so of cooking until it’s tender. In this country, it’s hard to know. Some tripe is quite tender, as it would be in Italy. But it can also needs up to several hours’ cooking. To avoid any doubt, I usually precook my tripe in amply salted water, together with some aromatic vegetables, for an hour or two. Or even better, in the pressure cooker for at least a half hour on high pressure. Otherwise, as indicated above, you can just keep simmering your tripe until it’s tender, adding water from time to time as needed. Types of tripe If you’ve eaten tripe at all, you will probably have had “honeycomb” tripe. It’s by far the commonest tripe sold in this country. But tripe actually comes in four different types, all of which are edible. They correspond to the four chambers of a cow’s digestive track: three “pre-stomachs”—rumen, reticulum and omasum—and the actual stomach of the cow, the abomasum. Here’s a picture to illustrate: You can certainly make trippa alla fiorentina with honeycomb tripe. Most recipes I’ve seen, however, call for mixture of rumen (called croce in Italian) and the omasum (called centopelle). I was lucky enough to find omasum tripe at local Asian supermarket to make my trippa. If you frequent dim sum restaurants, you may have encountered it, steamed with ginger and scallion. I’m actually surprised it’s not more popular. It is much more delicate in texture and less”gamey” in taste than the honeycomb. If you’re at all squeamish about tripe, you might want to try omasum. It might change your mind. Variations A good number of recipes for trippa alla fiorentina call for adding a splash of white to the pot, either to the soffritto right before the tripe or right after the tripe . Other recipes suggest adding broth to simmer along with the trip. The august Accademia italiana della cucina (Italian Academy of Cuisine), however, in its encyclopedic La cucina del Belpaese, published in English as La Cucina: The Regional Cooking of Italy, warns against both: True Trippa alla fiorentina wants neither wine nor broth nor long and exhausting cooking. The only variation permitted is the addition of a carrot and a little chopped celery. The Accademia also recommends a simple onion soffritto. As mentioned above, they will allow for carrot and celery if you insist. (And I do.) These culinary also allow for garlic and parsley, in which case you’ll have made Trippa alla livornese, named after the Tuscan port town of Livorno. The amount of tomato varies from recipe to recipe, as well. I thought this amount, which produces quite a “red” dish, was fine, but some recipes call for half this amount. And another well known cookbook, Le ricette regionali italiane, suggests gratinéeing your trippa, topped with grated cheese and drizzled with olive oil, under the broiler (aka grill) for a few minutes before serving. Sounds nice to me. Post Datum Trippa alla fiorentina is not to be confused with lampredotto another, perhaps better known, Florentine tripe dish. Slow cooked with aromatic herbs and vegetables but no tomato, lampredotto is served as a sandwich. It’s a common street-food in Florence and a staple of travel food shows like this episode of Bizarre Foods. Print Recipe Trippa alla fiorentina Florentine Style Tripe Servings: 4 Ingredients1 kilo 2 lbs 1 kilo (2 lbs) pre-cooked tripe cut into thin strips1 medium onion 1 medium carrot 1 small stalk celery 800g 28 oz peeled tomatoes aka one large small can, olive oilsalt and pepperTo finish the dish:freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano InstructionsChop the onion, carrot and celery together finely into a near paste. (A food processor makes short work of this, but a sharp knife and cutting board will do quite nicely as well.)In a pot, preferably made of terracotta or enameled cast iron, sauté the onion, carrot and celery in abundant olive oil, along with a pinch of salt, over a gentle flame until tender. Turn up the heat a bit and add the tripe strips and given them a good stir to coat them with the scented oil and aromatic vegetables. Let the tripe simmer over moderate heat for 5 minutes or so. Add the tomatoes, which you will have either crushed with your hands or passed through a food mill, and stir again. Lower the heat, cover the pot partially, and let the tripe and tomatoes simmer until the tripe is tender and the sauce has nicely reduced. The total cooking time will depend on how fully the pre-cooked tripe is, as little as 30-45 minutes or as long as 2 hours.If things are drying out, add a bit of water. Conversely, if the tripe is tender but the sauce a bit thin, uncover the pot and raise the heat so the sauce can reduce. Serve your trippa alla fiorentina with a nice topping of freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano. Enter your email address below and you'll receive new posts in your inbox as soon as they're published, at absolutely no charge. You'll never miss another recipe! 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