Tripe Rosa's way

Tripe is one of those ingredients that people either love or hate. We always use the honeycomb variety, which has a mild taste and is very tender when cooked. When selecting tripe, it should be thick, firm and white, but not a bright white as this indicates that it has been bleached. The quantity used here may seems a lot, but Angela's mum does not remember ever cooking less than 2kg of trippa in her life. As long as there's plenty of bread to soak up the juices, you'll rarely have leftovers.

file:7790_tripe.jpg

• serves

  8

• cook

  4 hours

Ingredients

• 2 kg unbleached honeycomb ox tripe
• 3 lemons, quartered
• 60 ml (1/4 cup) extra virgin olive oil
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1 small red fresh chilli, chopped (optional)
• 1 cup basil leaves (or flat leaf parsley if basil in not in season), chopped
• 125 ml (1/2 cup) dry white wine
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• 2  x 500g jars of pomodori pelati (or 2 x 400g tins tomatoes)
• 1 pinch of dried oregano
• freshly ground black pepper
• crusty bread, to serve

Instructions

Place the tripe in a large saucepan of boiling water. Allow the water to return to the boil, then cook for 5 minutes. Drain the tripe and wash it thoroughly in cold water until cool. Soak tripe and lemon in a large bowl or saucepan of cold water for 30 minutes.

Remove and drain the tripe. Cut into bite-sized pieces of about 4cm x 15cm. Return the tripe to the empty saucepan over low heat, covered, and cook for 10-12 minutes or until the tripe has released all excess moisture. Drain and set aside.

Return the saucepan to medium heat. Add the olive oil, onion, garlic and chilli (if using). Sautée for 3-4 minutes. When the liquid reduces slightly, add the tomato, oregano, salt and pepper to taste. Cover with water (1-2cm above the tripe). Stir well and cover. Reduce heat to very low and simmer for 4 hours, stirring occasionally. Add more water as required; the sauce should be thick and rich. Remove from heat.

Serve with good-quality crusty bread.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.