Ingredients for 4-5 people: 600 g precooked tripe1 onion2 stalks of celery2 carrot3 tomatoes1 tbsp tomato concentrate½ jar Extra Virgin Olive Oil3 dried hot chilli pepper salt and pepper Parmigiano
Carefully wash the tripe, rinsing it several times: if it still isn’t really white boil it again, in a saucepan with water and lemon juice, for about 10 minutes. Pat it dry with kitchen paper and cut it into strips about 1cm wide. Clean the onion, carrots, celery and chilli peppers; finely chop and then sauté them in a heavy-bottomed pan with the olive oil. When they have turned golden, add the tripe to the pan and stir everything together with a wooden spoon so the flavours mingle. Cook over a low heat for roughly an hour, then season with salt and pepper, add the tomato concentrate and stir again. Wash and dry the tomatoes, cut them into small pieces, tip them into the pan and mix with the tripe. Continue cooking over a moderate heat for about another hour. If you see that it’s drying out too much, add some warm water. The tripe is cooked when it has become very tender: remove it from the heat and leave to rest for approximately 10 minutes, then drizzle a little olive oil over it. Serve hot, but not boiling, accompanied by grated Parmigiano (as per Tuscan tradition).
“Trippa alla Fiorentina” is a delicious second course, even if the main ingredient is a “poor” meat, almost considered a waste product. It is a typical dish of Florentine cuisine and of our whole region.
(1) This dish appears to originate from a neighbourhood of Florence called San Frediano. On the streets in this area there were many places where, in large cauldrons, various types of tripe simmered away at all hours of the day and night. Once boiled, the tripe was hung on hooks, cleaned and left to dry, then sold to the “trippai” (= tripe sellers). They would pull their colourful wooden carts through the city streets, with huge pans full of tripe ready to be sold to and cooked (“alla fiorentina”) by housewives, or to make delicious bread rolls “stuffed” with boiled tripe and “salsa verde” (= green sauce). And pannini with tripe (or with the famous Lampredotto) are a tradition that has never died out in Florence, quite the contrary!