Trippa alla fiorentina (Florentine tripe) is beef tripe slow-cooked in tomato sauce and finished with Parmigiano Reggiano.. Soffritto, tripe, tomatoes, Parmigiano. The sauce should be thick and sticky, and not watery. And the cheese is stirred in stirred in off the heat to stop it going stringy.
Florence takes beef seriously. More seriously than almost anywhere else in Italy. Bistecca alla fiorentina is perhaps one of the best steaks you will ever eat. So perhaps it should be no surprise that Florence also knows how to make the most of the less popular Fifth Quarter cuts of the animal.
Walk through the Mercato Centrale or along the streets of the Oltrarno and you will find trippai (tripe sellers) selling trippa alla fiorentina and lampredotto (Florence’s tripe sandwich sold as street food) from carts and kiosks. A very old tradition that is alive and kicking in this tourist trap.
Trippa alla fiorentina is perhaps the simplest of all Italian regional tripe recipes which almost all other region’s tripe dishes use as the base recipe. If you can nail this tripe recipe, you will be able to create any other Italian tripe dish.
Buon appetito! 🇮🇹
More tripe recipes from Italy
Every Italian region has its own take on trippa. Here are the others on the site:
Tripe in Italian cooking – a guide to trippa across the regions.
Trippa alla Romana – Rome’s classic tripe in tomato sauce with pecorino.
Trippa all’Aretina – tripe cooked in a meat ragù with lemon zest. A little-known recipe from Arezzo in Tuscany.
Trippa alla Ragusana – Sicily’s most unusual tripe dish, flavoured with almonds, pine nuts and cinnamon.
Trippa e Patate alla Calabrese – spicy tripe and potato stew with Calabrian peperoncino chillies.
More Tuscany Recipes
- Tuscan Wild Boar Ragu – wide egg pasta with slow-cooked wild boar from the Tuscan hill towns.
- Crostini Neri – the classic Tuscan chicken liver pate, served on toasted bread before every meal in Florence.
- Fagioli all’Uccelletto – Tuscan baked beans with sage, garlic and tomato. A Florentine staple.
Trippa alla Fiorentina
Equipment
- Cast Iron Pan
- Chopping Board
- Chef’s knife
- Wooden Spoon
- Colander (for rinsing the tripe)
- Grater (for the Parmigiano)
Ingredients
- 800 grams tripe (pre-cooked and sliced)
- extra virgin olive oil
- 1 medium onion (finely chopped)
- 1 medium carrot (finely chopped)
- 1 stick CELERY (finely chopped)
- 1 x 400 gram tin chopped tomatoes ((good quality Italian brand))
- salt
- pepper
- 150 grams parmesan cheese (freshly grated)
Instructions
- Bring a pan of salted water to the boil then boil the tripe for 15 minutes. Drain well.
- Heat a cast iron pan, and add the extra virgin olive oil. When hot, add the chopped onion, celery, carrot and a good pinch of salt and sauté for about 10 minutes until the soffritto vegetables are very soft, but do not allow to burn.
- Add the tripe to the pan, and heat through, then add the tomatoes and to the pan, and bring to a simmer.
- Add some stock to the pan to achieve your prefer sauce consistency, Add some ground black pepper and adjust the salt, then cover and simmer on a very low heat for 2-3 hours until the tripe is very tender.
- Serve immediately with a generous handful of parmesan cheese and crusty bread,
