Trippa alla Fiorentina (Florence-style tripe)

Can you put in one sentence sophisticated words like Renaissance, paintings and architecture and a humble ingredient like tripe? Yes, if you describe the landmarks of Florence. There are lots of stalls and stands around this city, where tripe is prepared accordoing to various recipes and you will miss part of the Florence experience if you don't taste it.
Trippa alla Fiorentina is a specialty of preparing tripe with vegetables and tomato sauce. As most of the Tuscan dishes, it is simple and tasty, nutritios and unexpensive and could be easily prepared at home. Little pretence, deep and satisfying taste.

Patiency is the key word when talking about tripe - the more you cook it on medium heat, the more tenderness you will get at the final dish. The spongy honeycomb part of the tripe is the most tender and so my favourite. It is a good idea to buy a pre-cooked tripe,  this will save you 3 hours of preliminary boiling. 

Ingredients:

• 1 kg tripe, boiled and sliced into stripes
• 1 carrot, chopped
• 1 onion, sliced
• 1 stick of celery, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves
• 50 g butter
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 basil leaves
• 1 Tbsp hot pepper flakes
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 500 g canned tomatoes
• 4 cups vegetable stock
• 100 g grated Parmesan

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 200°C (400°F).

Sautee onion, celery, carrot and garlic into a pan with the butter and olive oil. Add the pepper flakes and white wine, heat for additional 2-3 minutes, then add tomatoes and stock, put everything in an earthware and roast in the oven for 1 hour. Sprinkle with Parmesan and serve.