TRIPPA ALLA ROMANA
Serves 4
500g raw honeycomb tripe
Salt
White vinegar
1 celery stick, roughly chopped
1 carrot, roughly chopped
1 onion, roughly chopped
3 whole cloves
1 star anise
Grated pecorino romano, to serve
Sauce
160ml olive oil
2 onions, finely diced
2 carrots, finely diced
2 celery sticks, finely diced
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
½ golden shallot, finely chopped
½ red chilli, finely chopped
1 marjoram stalk
100g guanciale, chopped
1.3kg tinned whole roma tomatoes
½ bunch fresh mint
Pepper, to taste
Method
To prepare the tripe, clean the tripe with equal parts coarse salt and white vinegar, as if you were doing your laundry by hand. Rinse. Combine the celery, carrot, onion, cloves and star anise in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the tripe and enough water to cover all the ingredients and bring to the boil. Cook for 2½ hours until soft and yielding. Set aside in its broth until cool. Remove from broth, reserving the liquid, and cut into thin strips.
To make the sauce, heat the olive oil in a large saucepan or pot over a low heat. Add the onion, carrot, celery, garlic, shallot and chilli and cook until soft. Add the marjoram and guanciale and cook for a few minutes until the pork fat renders. Meanwhile, crush half of the tomatoes by hand and sift the other half to separate the seeds from the flesh (discard the seeds).
Add all the tomato to the onion mixture and cook for about 30 minutes until slightly reduced. Add the tripe, with a little of its cooking broth, and continue cooking for 40-45 minutes over low heat. Take off the heat and cover, setting aside and allowing to cool to room temperature. Add the mint just before serving. Serve with pecorino romano and pepper.
