Freshly home from Tuscany (Toscana), where I traveled around with Joey, attending Stephanie & Nat's wedding and eating as much tripe (trippa) and drinking as much espresso (caffè) and Campari as possible.
You know you have the right friends when they serve bufala mozzarella as an antipasto at their wedding, milked and made that very morning in Campania:
Bufala Mozzarella
Foodwise, the tripe was the star of the trip. As in the US, the most common tripe in Italy is honeycomb tripe, called trippa, made from the cow's third stomach, the reticulum. But in Tuscany, a second form of tripe is common: Lampredotto, made from the cow's fourth stomach, the rennet-producing abomasum. Lampredotto is a peasant dish consumed throughout the countryside, but it is also loved within Firenze, where it is a common street food, served as a sandwich with hot sauce. Looking not unlike roast beef, the taste and texture is similar too, but with a richer, deeper taste. Abomasum begins as a thicker, more organ-esque offal than honeycomb tripe, but by the time the Fiorentini are done stewing it, it is tender and delicious. I enjoyed it as a Tuscan-style stew in a Firenze trattoria—best tripe, from any stomach, I likely ever had.
Other hits: Tuscan beans (fagioli cannellini, rosemary, olive oil); mozzarella fritta; porcini seasoned with nipetella (woodsy Tuscan thyme); anything made with the bright-orange yolks of local free-range eggs; blueberry gelato at Grom; crostini toscani; pecorino toscano con mostarda (more of a sweet relish than a mustard); bistecca fiorentina (particularly as tagliata); chitarra (homemade spaghetti); Tuscan olive oil.
