I trippai di Firenze

When I was growing up my mum would occasionally cook us tripe and onions. An English dish which is basically honeycomb tripe simmered in milk and served in a thin bechamel. Onto this we would sprinkle malt vinegar, salt, and pepper. It's not a dish that you could persuade many people to eat and I would eat now only for reasons of nostalgia.

Since childhood I have eaten tripe in France both as andouillette and in a stew, in Portugal with white beans, and now in Florence. The Florence lampredotto panino has definitely been the high point for me. Better even than the pig's stomach soup I once ate in Thailand whilst being eyed up as a potential client by prostitutes.

Florence has a number of stalls and stands around the city serving the traditional trippa alla Fiorentina and Lampredotto. Tripe is served either in panini or in small plastic dishes. Traditionally they are served with red wine but the stalls all sell soft drinks too.

Trippa alla Fiorentina is tripe cooked in a thick tomato sauce, whereas the lampredotto (the fourth stomach of the cow) is cooked in a broth and then served with some of the boiling liquor and either salsa verde or a picante sauce or both. Some stands also serve tripe served in other ways - with potatoes or chard for example. At least one, Nerbone in the Mercato Centrale also serves bollito (boiled beef) for those not willing to venture into the arena of cooked stomach consumption.

As well as the tourists frequenting the inner city stands, many locals regularly stop by for a quick lunch.

I've put together the map below using the listings in Slow Food's Osterie d'Italia as a starting point. It is not by any means definitive. I don't know the south of Florence very well or the suburbs so if anyone can offer improvements then please let me know. I'll update with pictures and more detail after visiting them.


View Lampredotto and Tripe in Florence in a larger map.