Florentine Tripe Recipe (Trippa alla Fiorentina)

Thursday, March 19, 2009

This is one of my favourite traditional dishes of Florence, the Florentine tripe (Trippa alla Fiorentina). It’s incredibly tasty, made with “poor” ingredients and it's a big part of the Tuscany popular and ancient tradional cusine.

Ingredients:
1 onion
1 carrot
1 stalk celery
extra-virgin olive oil
3 pounds tripe, blanched and boiled
1 pound canned peeled tomatoes.
Salt
Pepper
Parmigiano cheese


Use only the best parts of the tripe, and cut it into very thin strips.

Clean, wash and chop the onion, carrot and celery and put into a metal pan with olive oil. Cook well, then add the tripe.

When tripe gets golden in colour, add the tomatoes, chopped very finely.

Add salt and pepper, then cook over a very low heat for about half an hour, until the sauce has reduced almost completely, stirring frequently to prevent sticking.

The tripe may be served immediately when is still hot, sprinkled with some grated Parmigiano over.

Tripe is usually served with boiled or mashed potatoes or, if preferred, with cannellini beans and olive oil.

You can try this unique speciality in one of the several tripe stands (trippai) in the streets of the city.
Tripe stands are generally open from 8:30 or 9 a.m. to 6:30 or 7:30 p.m. some of them even on Saturdays.

Some addresses:
Mario Albergucci, Piazzale di Porta Romana.
Sergio Pollini, Via dei Macci (near Borgo La Croce).
Il Trippaio di Firenze, Via Maso Finiguerra.
Marco Bolognesi, Via Gioberti.
Trippaio, Via Dante Alighieri.
Nerbone (inside San Lorenzo Market, 011-39- 055-219-949).

10 Ten Things I Can't Live Without in Florence

Monday, February 16, 2009

1 . Pizza, bread and pastries at Pugi, the best bakery in Florence. You can find Pugi at:

P.zza S. Marco 10
Tel. 055 280981

Via S. Gallo 62/R
Tel. 055 475975

Viale De Amicis 49/R
Tel. 055 669666

2 . Meat! Big bloody steaks, that’s the masterpiece of Florence, and I love it!

3 . Celebrations for San Lorenzo day (saint Lawrence), June 24th. Huge fireworks and lots of people in the streets.

4 . My bike. Forget your car in Florence, if you don’t want to waste time in traffic jams use bus, bikes or feet!

5 . Air conditioning. Summer in Florence is incredibly hot...

6. Shopping and hanging around in the city markets. My favourite one is Sant’Ambrogio: fruits and vegetables, meat, clothing, shoes, books, and more…

7 . Rock Bottom Records Shop. Here I buy food for my soul: a great selection of rock ‘n’ roll, beat, garage, punk, vinyl records, both new and second-hand, at reasonable prices.

8 . A compact umbrella, the one you can store in a bag. When it starts to rain, it could last forever :-(

9 . Sales! Fashion! Shopping! Sales in Florence are a jungle but I’m a beast!

10 . A cup of tea or a cappuccino with my friends at the Caffè La Loggia in via Pietrapiana.

Trippa and Lampredotto - Florence Street Food

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Trippa (tripe) and Lampredotto are two dishes that perfectly represent the Florence popular culinary traditions, eating them is an experience you can’t miss.
Born from the street foods of artisans and workmen, tripe and lampredotto, have been an important part of the Florentine tradition for almost ten centuries. Florence and Tuscany are famous for the meat, that is an important part of traditional cousine, and innards are very common, as in the past every piece of the animal was precious, even stomach, liver and stuff like that.

For those who might not have ever thought that these innards of the animal could even be eaten, the two most popular dishes are explained.
La trippa (tripe), is the part of the digestive organ found between the esophagus and the stomach of the cows. It can be prepared in many ways, even if in Florence it is mainly found cooked with tomato sauce (trippa alla fiorentina), but I use to cook it also with mushrooms, with or without tomato sauce, or with tomato sauce and parmigiano.

Tripe (Trippa)

Lampredotto (offal) also comes from the stomach of a bovine, but is more tender, thin and flat, and it’s not white, but light brown.

Lampredotto

The meat is boiled in a broth of herbs and vegetables, then finely sliced and as served as a sandwich. Salt and pepper, green sauce and hot sauce are the traditional toppings, and a glass of red wine is the perfect drink. You can also ask for “lampredotto bagnato”: a piece of the bread is soaked in the broth.
Lampredotto is sold in some typical lampredotto-stands, small wheeled-kiosks placed in the streets, where you can stop, take your sandwich and step away, we call this kind of stand “lampredottaio” or “trippaio”.

The best lampredottaio in Florence are:

- Piazza de’ Cerchi (near Piazza della Signoria)
- Via Gioberti (near Piazza Beccaria)
- Piazza di Mercato Nuovo (Mercato del Porcellino)
- San Lorenzo Market (the stand is called “Nerbone”)
- Via del Verrocchio (behind Sant’Ambrogio market)

Tuscany Recipe: Summer Farro Salad - Emmer Salad

Monday, December 29, 2008

A fresh tuscany recipe, perfect for summer, easy to prepare and still tasty the day after :-)
This is the basic original recipe, but you can add other ingredients: peppers, olives, zucchine...

Ingredients:

500 gr of emmer (farro)
500 gr of ripe red tomatoes
2 onions
a bunch of basil
extravirgin olive oil
salt
pepper


Preparation:

Wash emmer, than put it in a big pan and fill with water. Add 2 spoons of salt and make it boil: then cook for 30 minutes (or as specified in the instructions on the pack).
Chop tomatoes and onions into small pieces, then chop the asil with your hands. Put everything in a big bowl, add the emmer.
Season with oil, salt and pepper to your choice, mix and refigerate before serving.

Tuscany Recipe: Panzanella

Sunday, December 28, 2008

This is a fresh, tasty, summer recipe: a bread salad, very easy to cook, and it can be prepared even a couple of days before is eaten ;-)

Ingredients:

400 g of day-old country bread (best one is tuscany unsalty bread)

8 red, ripe tomatoes

2 red onions

1 cucumber

a bunch of fresh basil

extra-virgin olive oil

red-wine vinegar

salt

pepper

Preparation:

Cut the bread into 1-inch cubes, then place the cubes in a bowl with water; squeeze them with your hands, put in a large bowl, and crumble it with your fingers.

Cut the cucumber and tomatoes into small pieces, cut the onions into thin slices, then add all to the bread.

Chop the basil and add to the bread, then season with oil, vinegar, salt and pepper. Mix gently and place in the frige until serve.

Trattoria da Rocco, Sant'Ambrogio Market

Monday, November 17, 2008

Rocco is one of my favorite restaurants, when I want to eat in a very quick and cheap way.It's not a not a poor sandwich to eat standing, at Roccoyou can have a complete meal with all the simple and tasy dishes of Florence tradition, drink a glass of red wine, and have a talk with Rocco, the owner and also chef of this restaurant. Rocco is located inside the market of Sant' Ambrogio, in piazza Sant'Ambrogio; is only opened at lunch and closes around 14-14,30 because has to respect market's closing time. Market of Sant' Ambrogio is perhaps my favorite one of Florence, less crowded than San Lorenzo market, and with foods of greater quality (I'm talking about meat, fruits and vegetables), i recommend you a visit to taste some great Tuscany food.

Rocco is not link a common restaurant, with small tables, separated kitchen, etc. we say that it is more a widened kiosk, seems a train wagon, with small tables at sides, and a free central space where the waiters pass away. The kitchen is at the bottom of the " wagon" , and it is at sight. In the central space there's also a big container with food trays, so you can see what you're going to order.

Atmosphere is pretty informal: vintage prints representing old Florence, memories of a whole century... on the table a yellow paper, napkins and glasses are made of paper too. Rocco is a perfect host, he laughs, play tricks, sings traditional songs... The service is really quick, in a few minutes your meal is served, infact I would say that it' s more a fast-food-trattoria then a restaurant.



I really like Rocco's dishes: all the simplest traditional recipes typical of Florence, like steaks, chickpea soup, ribollita, beans soup, boiled tripe, and much more, always served with his own red wine.
All the dishes cost less than 4 euro, so the price for a complete meal, with 3 main dishes and beverages is about 15 euro... really inexpensive, but also really tasty... You won't go away with empty stomach or empty pockets!

I just love this place, everyone eats here, from tourists to italian businessmen, once here I even met some celebrities like football players of Fiorentina, the Florence football team.

Inside the market of Sant'Ambrogio

Il Latini Restaurant

I've been in this restaurant several times, i use to go there with my father because it's one of his favorite: he also used to take my mom at Latini when she still was his fiancée, beacuse food is soooo good, and atmosphere is very characteristic and informal.

Latini restaurant is located in via dei Palchetti, behind piazza Santa Maria Novella, it is not difficult to find, and probably you'll recognize the restaurant from the row outside: even if there are many seats and every night are made two or more turns, the restaurant is always crowded, therefore I always take my reservation some days before.

Anyway, waiting outside for the table he is quite pleasant, you can chat with other people in line, and periodically a waiter comes offering small pieces of pecorino cheese,a salame slice, a glass of wine, so you can enjoy while waiting.

The atmosphere of the restaurant is very characteristic, according to the traditional Tuscany style: big wooden tables, lots of small painting and photo to the walls, and thousands of hams hung to the ceiling. The Tuscany raw ham (much salty than the one form Parma, that's sweet) is the masterpiece of Latini, sliced quite thick by hand, tasty and salty: delicious! The restaurant has several rooms, the smallest ones has normal small tables, in the main room you can seat at the big wooden tables where you can eat side by side with strangers, and make some new friendships.

The red wine they serve is generous and quite cheap, the give you a big bottle and you can drink as much as you want, at the end you'll pay just for the wine you drunk, not for the whole bottle.

The waiters are always nice, kind and very friendly.

Here you can eat the traditional popoular Tuscany cousine: liver patè, tomato soup, chickpea soups, different kind of salame (really high quality), and sure meat: the famous Florence steak and other wonders. The meat is just gorgeous, soft and bloody steaks, just be sure to order it not well cooked, to get the real meat taste. However In Florence if you order well cooked steak it's like insulting the butcher (it would mean that you don't trust the freshness of the meat).

I surely recommend you to have a dinner at Latini restaurant, to taste some delicious genuine Tuscany food and to enjoy the pleasant atmosphere of the place.

For reservations:

Ristorante Il Latini - Via dei Palchetti 6/r, Firenze
Telephone: +39(055)210916
Fax: +39(055)289794
Il Latini

Market of San Lorenzo

Monday, November 10, 2008

Every tourist visiting Florence has to take a tour of San Lorenzo market, the big and famous market whitch sells just everything, clothing, accessories, souvenirs of Florence, but above all they are specialized in artigianal leather products: coats, handbags, purses, belts, gloves, etc. Take a tour of the external stalls, then penetrate in the covered market!

The market of San Lorenzo is very close to the dome and train station, right in the center of the city, it is just impossible impossible not to find it. The building, built between 1870 and 1874 is one of first in Italy to being realized with modern techniques (for the age…), materials are iron, glass and cast iron, and it has been planned from Mengoni, who designed also the other market of Florence (sant' Ambrogio, a smaller one but also pretty and much less chaotic) and the gallery Vittorio Emanuele II of Milan. The base of the buildinf is monumental, made in stone, very suited to the Florence context, with large round arches; the upper part is light and transparent thanks to the glass a decorated with a metallic structure. The big glasses make the inside of the covered market very lightful.

Externally the market is surrounded with loggiati of classical arches, that turn around along the roads surruonding the building; in these roads you'll find all the external stalls.

The walk among the stalls is usally pretty stressful, the road is often overcrowded, and sometimes covering just 300 meters can take a long time… the stalls are selling just everything, mostly cheap leather accessories, but also t-shirts, souvenirs of Florence (some of them are really kitsch and funny!), clothes... there are also some vintage clothing and some craftsman's shops.

But what I most like of San Lorenzo are the benches of the food market, those situated in the inside. There are butcher's shop benches with wonderful pieces of fresh meat (Tuscay and Florence are well known for it's fine quality meat). Not to mention the benches of the cheeses… Some benches sell jars of the best conserves, like peppers, dried tomatoes, etc... others sell dried beans and cereals in bug raw cotton bags which are so beautiful to see… I love the scents of San Lorenzo, the smell of the fresh blood of the meat (it's a bit creepy but i like it!), the scent of seasoned pecorino cheese and the tasty smell of spices…

I suggest you to visit the market in the early morning, it' less crowded and all the shops are open (food shops are cloesed after 14.oo pm). If you're hungry taste the tipical Florence fast food: bread with "lampredotto" at Nerbone's (inside the market), hot boiled tripe and other offals served in a piece of bread and red wine.

Here are two videos taken from Youtube of the market of San Lorenzo, enjoy!