Trippa alla Fiorentina con Piselli e Mentuccia

Ingredients

• 800 g honeycomb tripe (trippa già cotta, pre-cooked), blanched in water, white wine, and aromatics for 45 minutes; cut into strips 1 cm wide by 5 cm long after blanching
• For the blanching
• 1.5 l water
• 150 ml dry white wine
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 carrot, halved
• 1 celery stalk, halved
• For the soffritto and sauce
• 2 medium cipolla bianca (white onion), finely sliced
• 400 g peeled plum tomatoes, crushed by hand
• 60 ml extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 tbsp Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale di Modena (aged), added in the final 10 minutes of sauce cooking
• 250 g fresh peas (shelled weight), added in the final 8 minutes of braising
• 1 handful mentuccia (Calamintha nepeta, wild calamint), leaves only; added at service, not during cooking
• To serve
• 40 g Pecorino Toscano DOP, freshly grated
• 2 hard-boiled eggs, halved; one half per bowl — the Florentine street food version

Method

1. 1
   Place the tripe in a large pot with the water, white wine, bay leaf, carrot, and celery. Bring to a simmer and blanch for 45 minutes. Drain and discard the aromatics. Allow the tripe to cool slightly, then cut into strips 1 cm wide by 5 cm long. The blanching water carries the acrid first-odour of raw tripe; it is discarded entirely. The tripe is ready when it yields cleanly to the knife and smells neutral.
2. 2
   Warm the olive oil in a wide, heavy pan over a low flame. Add the finely sliced cipolla bianca and cook slowly, stirring occasionally, until every strand is completely transparent and without colour — the onion will collapse and soften without browning. This is done when the raw sharpness has left the smell entirely and the onion offers no resistance to a spoon.
3. 3
   Add the crushed plum tomatoes to the softened onion. Raise the heat to medium and cook the sauce, stirring from time to time, until it thickens and the oil begins to separate at the edges — approximately 15 minutes. In the final 10 minutes, stir in the tablespoon of aged Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale di Modena. The sauce is ready when its surface shines and the tomato no longer smells raw.
4. 4
   Add the blanched, cut tripe to the tomato sauce. Stir to coat every strip. This is the step on which the dish lives or dies: the tripe must braise in the sauce long enough to absorb its sweetness and lose any residual toughness, yet the strips must remain distinct and yielding rather than collapsing — thick cuts will not soften in this time and will ruin the dish. Braise over a moderate flame, partially covered, for 20 minutes, tasting a strip at the midpoint; it should offer slight resistance and then give cleanly between the teeth.
5. 5
   Add the fresh shelled peas directly to the braising pan. Stir once to distribute and continue cooking, uncovered, for exactly 8 minutes. The peas are done when they are just tender and hold their vivid green colour; a grey-green pea is overcooked and starchy.
6. 6
   Remove the pan from the heat. Scatter the mentuccia leaves over the surface of the dish and allow them to rest for one minute — the residual heat releases the herb's volatile oils without cooking them away. Serve immediately into warmed bowls, placing a halved hard-boiled egg in each. Finish with freshly grated Pecorino Toscano DOP at the table. The mentuccia should be perceptible as a clean, wild, faintly oregano-tinged lift above the richness of the tripe.