Busecca Milanese

Ingredients

• 800 g honeycomb tripe, fresh, not canned; cut into 2 cm strips
• 250 g dried borlotti beans, soaked overnight, cooked separately until tender
• 1.5 litres beef broth, good and clear
• 400 g tomatoes, peeled and roughly chopped, or passata
• 2 stalks celery, finely diced
• 2 medium carrots, finely diced
• 1 medium onion, finely diced
• 4 leaves fresh sage, whole
• 1 piece Parmigiano Reggiano rind, optional but strongly recommended
• 60 ml white wine vinegar, for the blanching water
• 30 ml olive oil
• To finish
• 80 g Parmigiano Reggiano, freshly grated
• To serve
• 1 loaf crusty bread, sliced

Method

1. 1
   Place the tripe strips in a large pot of cold water with the white wine vinegar. Bring to the boil and blanch for 30 minutes. Drain, discard the water, rinse the tripe under cold running water, and return it to the pot with fresh cold water. Bring to the boil again and simmer for a further 30 minutes. Drain and set aside. The tripe should show no residual off-odour at this stage — only a clean, mild bovine smell.
2. 2
   Warm the olive oil in a heavy-based pot over a moderate flame. Add the onion, celery, and carrots and sweat gently, stirring occasionally, until they have softened completely and turned pale gold. They should offer no resistance when pressed with a spoon.
3. 3
   Add the tomatoes and sage leaves to the softened vegetables. Stir to combine and cook for 10 minutes until the tomatoes have broken down and the mixture has tightened to a rough paste. The surface should bubble in slow, heavy drops.
4. 4
   Add the blanched tripe to the pot. Pour in the beef broth to cover. Add the Parmigiano rind if using. Bring to a gentle simmer, then reduce the heat to the lowest setting. Cover and cook for a minimum of 2 hours, stirring occasionally. This is the step on which the dish lives or dies: the tripe must cook until it is wholly gelatinous and yields without resistance — any chewiness means it is not finished. At no point should the pot boil hard.
5. 5
   Add the pre-cooked borlotti beans to the pot in the final 20 minutes of cooking. Stir them through gently so they warm through and begin to melt slightly into the broth without disintegrating entirely. The soup should be thick and homogeneous rather than brothy. Adjust consistency with a little additional broth if needed — the surface should move slowly when the pot is tilted.
6. 6
   Remove and discard the Parmigiano rind and any sage stems. Taste and correct the seasoning with salt. Ladle into deep bowls. Only at this point, at the table, shower each portion generously with freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano. The cheese should melt slowly into the surface of the soup rather than clumping. Serve immediately with crusty bread.