Trippa Romana or Roman style tripe is a classic Italian dish, reminding us that in less affluent times nothing was wasted from meat animals.

Use Honeycomb beef tripe for this classic Italian dish. You should buy it cleaned and parboiled from the butcher. Simmering the tripe again will ensure that it is tender before you bake it slowly in the tomato sauce to integrate the flavours.

Ingredients for 4 people, 6 as an entree.

1 kg tripe
2 cloves
A few whole peppercorns
1 walnut sized piece of butter
2 tablespoons of oil
1 carrot
1 onion
1 stick of celery
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tablespoons of chopped herbs, parsley, basil or marjoram
600ml tomato passata
Salt and pepper
Half cup of grated parmesan cheese

Method

Cover the tripe in water and add the cloves and peppercorns.
Simmer for a hour or so until the tripe is tender. Drain.
Meanwhile in another saucepan saute the chopped vegetables and garlic in the butter and oil until the onion is translucent. Add the tomato passata and simmer for a few minutes. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper.
Cut the tripe into 2cm strips and put into oven-proof dish. Cover with the herbs and tomato sauce.
Cover and bake in a slow oven for an hour and a half.
Serve with noodles accompanied by the cheese in a separate bowl. For a main course you could add a garden salad and some rustic Italian bread.

This dish would be ideally paired with a Sangiovese red wine.

A free cookbook for food pairing with Sangiovese

More about Sangiovese

Some more tripe recipes