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).

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)

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