Caldume

Tripe simmered for hours in a clear broth and served in its own liquid with lemon.

Beef. Not vegetarian — contains beef.

Ingredients

• 1.2 kg honeycomb tripe, cleaned
• 3 litres water, for blanching, which is discarded
• 2 onions, halved
• 3 carrots, in chunks
• 3 sticks celery
• 4 bay leaves
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 2 lemons
• black pepper
• a handful of parsley, chopped

Method

1. Rinse the tripe under cold running water for several minutes, rubbing it.
2. Cover it with the 3 litres of water, bring to the boil, and boil 10 minutes. Pour the whole lot away and rinse both the tripe and the pot. Skipping this leaves a smell no amount of bay will cover.
3. Cut the tripe into strips about 1 cm wide.
4. Return it to the clean pot with fresh water to cover, the onions, carrots, celery, bay and salt.
5. Simmer very gently for 3 HOURS, skimming for the first twenty minutes. It is ready when a strip gives no resistance between the teeth — undercooked tripe is rubber and no seasoning disguises it.
6. Lift out the vegetables and bay. Serve the tripe in its broth with a lemon half squeezed into each bowl, plenty of pepper and the parsley. The lemon goes in at the table, not the pot: boiled for three hours it would turn bitter.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Italy · All recipes