All Hail the Cow

I had my tripe today. Did I tell you that of the 10 of us, 6 are from Italian-American families (which might be the undoing of our Chef Valter)? Tripe they definitely did not recommend. But it became known that I wanted to try it, and so in the market in Pistoia this morning, it was bought and this afternoon prepared. The first piece I tried was actually with the vendor in the square. He asked me if I was “una donna forte?” (a strong woman) and I said, “Si!” He cut off a piece, cut it in half, sprinkled a little salt on it, and he ate it with me.

I will admit there was some trepidation, but I wasn’t about to hesitate, not in front of like 12 curious Italians watching this strange Americana and the Chef. It tasted sorta like the stringy part of white meat turkey.

Here he is selling us the tripe we bought to take home with us and the dish we ultimately made.



Everyone, even the naysayers, was very pleasantly surprised by the dish we made above which included finely diced onion, carrots, and celery, but was the serving dish scraped clean at the end of our meal? No.

We made 12 separate dishes for lunch and it was probably the first time I really really overate. Oh but there was so much to try. The idea in Pistoia was to see what looked good and bring it home and cook it. The Chef had a few things in his head, quite a few, and a couple of people, very bravely I thought, also prepared their own recipes. Highlights for me were a panzanella which is a traditional Tuscan bread salad and pasta fagioli which is a popular Olive Garden item with the all-you-can-eat salad and breadsticks – a soup made with pasta and beans – and not surprisingly completely unlike what I thought it to be.

Click here for more picks from the market and of lunch.

This evening was dedicated to the Florentine steak, and let’s just take a few minutes of silence to reflect.



The Florentine steak is a T-bone, and Chef Valter maintains that world-wide, if you order a Florentine steak, you will receive a T-bone. I’m not so sure the term is so well known, but I am convinced it should be. For one, Florentine is much prettier word than T-bone.

With it, he served us a Brunello di Montalcino Riserva. Produced as well in the Chianti Classico region, it is a very well know variety of wine and expensive, and it was exquisite with the beef. Also exquisite but much more lowly was the wonderful zucchini accompaniment. We hollowed out “eight-ball” zucchini, and cooked them in the oven a bit, diced up their insides, sautéed them with olive oil, garlic, onion, fresh oregano, and tomatoes, restuffed them with a small piece of mozzarella in the middle, and cooked them a bit more. Beautiful.



Tips of the day
#1: Try panzanella. Make an ordinary cucumber and tomato salad with olive oil, red wine vinegar, basil, salt and pepper, but combine it with cubes of good italian bread that has been toasted into breadcrumbs. The bread soaks up the dressing, but still stays a bit crunchy. Yummy.

#2: Always bring your meat to room temperature before grilling or cooking.