Grandma Menna’s Kitchen: Florentine tripe
We have already noticed that in Tuscany we love offal and entrails, parts of animals less noble, but not less flavourful at all: chicken liver crostini, spleen crostini, pork liver, buristo, paracore, Florentine abomasum tripe and tripe!
Tripe is made with the first three chambers of cow’s stomach: rumen, reticulum and omasum: they’re not different in flavour, they only differ in their aspect, since they can be flat or honeycomb. Tripe is a typical dish of many Italian regions, the one I’m going to tell you is how my grandad Remigio used to cook it, according to the Florentine style.
When I was a child I was ssceptical about tripe: when you first see it, it doesn’t seem very tasty, especially if you’re young and a little picky! but when you taste it… no fear anymore! It’s tender, tasteful, with a smooth and typical flavour. You do need half a kilo of Tuscan bread to soak into the sauce!
Florentine tripe
Print Recipe Pin Recipe Share by EmailIngredients
- 800 g tripe, pre-cooked
- 500 g ripe tomatoes, or 500 ml tomato sauce
- 1 carrot
- 1 red onion
- 1 stalk celery
- 1 sprig parsley
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- Grated Parmigiano Reggiano
Instructions
- Rinse the tripe under running water, drain it and cut it into thin slices.
- Thinly chop the carrot, the celery, the onion and the parsley and sauté in a large pot with a generous drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. When it gets golden and soft, add the tripe slices and stir to enhance the flavour for a few minutes.
- In the meantime, peel the ripe tomatoes, chop and purée them to have a smooth tomato sauce, water down with a cup of water and pour it into the pan over the tripe. Season with salt and pepper and simmer covered for about 40 minutes, paying attention not to let it dry out.
- The liquid amount will depend on the kind of tomato you chose. So, at the end of cooking, if the tripe is not yet cooked through, add some more water. If it is too watery instead, let it cook without lid for a few more minutes.
- At last, the tripe should have a nice thick tomato sauce to eat with tons of Tuscan bread. Before eating, sprinkle with a large spoonful of grated Parmigiano.
At last, tripe should have a nice liquid tomato sauce, to eat with tons of Tuscan bread. Before to eat it, sprinkle with a large spoonful of grated parmesan, set aside for five minutes and then serve it warm.
These ingredients are for 4 people, but on Saturday I had it with my mum and we finished it, since we are the only ones to love it in my family. Tripe is a low-cal food, luckily: it contains 5% of fat only!
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We are all trying to get into these kind of dishes? We imagine that this needs to simmer for some time so that it is tender? We do know that if you have some good Italian olive oil and great Parmesan with lots of Tuscan bread, you can make any dish good! always love your posts and especially about your Grandad. best, s
well, chicken liver plus chicken hearts plus chicken stomach marinated with onion in a soy sauce and grilled – what a delicious dish!
@ Sherry: yeah, it should simmer for one hour, more or less, and remembr to boil it before for 10 minutes! anf, however, you’r right.. good Tuscan bread, extravirgin olive oil and Parmesan.. and you’re OK!
@ Tasterussian: mmh. never heard of it! you need to be brave, but sounds interesting!
Juls, i’m surprised you have never tried to cook this simple and delicious dish! Will definitely mark this as “need to cook” specially for Juls and make step-by-step photos! That would be one of your favorite dish, I’m 100% sure!
Definitely! I’m waiting for the recipe on your blog, so!
Finally! It’s rare to find these kinds of recipes…. Since I specialize in Classic Mexican Cooking (European too), we use tripe a lot (in fact, we use everything from an animal)… But tripe, full of flavor, very nutritious, economical… what more can you ask for? We use tripe in heavy duty soups (perfect to cure hangovers!), as a main dish or as my Basque family’s style of “tapas”, we like them all.
Your recipe will remind us of our favorite places in Florence…. and we will enjoy the dish along with the memories, thank you.
PS.- I cook it in the pressure cooker for only 10 min after pressure is up…. done! Tender yet still firm, perfect for whatever sauce or compliment you will use. The leftover broth is great for cooking rice in too.
What a great comment! I’m really happy to write your words, and definetly I’m gonna visit your blog. Thank you also for your advices!
I saw your link on Foodista for this recipe- what a beautiful recipe too! Looking forward to more of your posts!
What a special flavour!!!
I eat sometime and the taste is… so special, like Tuscany!!! :))