How to cook tripe? Tips and ideas
How to cook tripe? If you are wondering how to bring this tasty dish common in the Italian culinary tradition to the table, you are in the right place! Tripe, in fact, has been known and appreciated since ancient times, from the time of the ancient Greeks and Romans. If once it was considered a poor dish of popular tradition, in recent years it has been significantly revalued and has become a refined and gourmet dish.
But before explaining how tripe is prepared and cooked, let's take a closer look at it and ask ourselves what it is: not everyone knows and, indeed, it is often believed that it derives from the animal intestine ... Well, no : tripe is an offal that comes from the stomach of the bovine (or more rarely from the pig). As a ruminant, the bovine has four different cavities in its stomach: the abomasum, the rumen, the omasum and the reticulum. The latter three constitute a kind of pre-stomach. They are all healthy and very nutritious!
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As a result, tripe is not only not as bad as it is believed: it contains 85 calories per 100 grams, of which 60% are proteins and fats only 4%! Let's find out together how to buy, prepare and cook tripe according to some of the recipes of our tradition. But if you are a "meat lover, in the meantime, here is the video-recipe of an" excellent Thai meat salad:
How to buy tripe?
First, check with a trusted butcher to make sure your tripe is top quality! Consider that nothing of the tripe should be discarded and that you can therefore use it in its entirety. Despite this, however, when cooking tripe it tends to reduce, so it is better to abound in portions and consider about 200 grams each.
When choosing your tripe, consider the color carefully: it must be gray or in any case tending to dark, not white! If it is white, it probably means that it has been subjected to repeated washing which diminishes its nutritional capacity.
As we said, nothing is discarded from the tripe: the abomasum (the actual stomach) is the darkest part and is quite fat; the rumen is the fattest and thickest part. The omasus is the leanest part. and shows a structure full of white folds. Finally, the lattice is the smallest part and is the one with a spongy appearance, similar to a honeycomb.
How is tripe prepared?
In general, tripe is sold already washed, both in the butcher's and in the supermarket, but it is always better to give it a further cleaning. How to do it? Simple: first of all, boil some water with a little lemon in a pot. , then scald the tripe in water (30 seconds will suffice) and drain it.
Use a knife to scrape off both the grease and lint from both sides. Rinse the tripe again and put it in a bowl with cold water and chopped lemon and leave it in there for a good half hour. Finally, drain it again and cut it according to the recipe you decide to follow.
Italian cuisine knows many different ways of cooking tripe, which vary from region to region. Generally, however, the offal is cut into strips.
How to cook Milanese tripe
Tripe alla Milanese, also called "busecca" is a simple and typical dish of this region. It is also one of the most famous ways to cook it. The recipe, in fact, is very easy: you just need to brown the offal in a sauté of butter, lard, onion, celery and carrots.
Tomato and borlotti beans are then added. The cooking is quite long: they must in fact cook in a pan for about two and a half hours over low heat.
We recommend using a slow cooker to make the process easier and cheaper: this pot made of ceramic and wrapped in stainless steel, this pot slowly cooks food at a constant temperature. Plus, its timer automatically turns off the electricity, allowing you to do more in a carefree way!
How do you cook tripe with sauce?
To prepare the tripe with sauce instead, start by preparing a sauté with carrot, onion and celery. Then add the washed and drained tripe and let it brown for a few minutes, then blend with some wine.
Add the chopped tomatoes and cover everything with a lid. Let your tripe simmer for about 40 minutes, then add some salt to your taste!
The recipe for stewed tripe
Stewed tripe is also called "alla genovese": it is in fact one of the typical dishes of Liguria. It is prepared in a tasty broth together with the beans and should be eaten with a spoon, like a soup. The broth is usually prepared with vegetables and is excellent to accompany with croutons.
A very tasty variant of stewed tripe is the one with potatoes. In this case, the tripe must be sautéed in a pan with a sauté of celery, carrots, onions cooked in butter, adding the vegetables used for the broth and white wine. Then add some vegetable broth and cook for a couple of hours. Meanwhile, cut the potatoes into chunks and cook them with the tripe in the last half hour, together with a lemon zest and some Parmesan cheese.
Roman-style tripe: how is it prepared?
Finally, how to cook tripe if not Roman-style? This traditional Lazio recipe involves cooking the tripe with a sauté of carrots, celery, garlic and onion, then adding some bacon and deglazing with the wine. Let it simmer for a couple of hours and finally add a little mint. The final touch will be given by a sprinkling of pecorino romano and, if desired, a pinch of chilli.
Each country has its own culinary traditions ... look at these as they are curious:
