L'Italo-Americano

www.italoamericano.org 34 L'Italo-Americano THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2018 The tradition of Quinto Quarto cuisine: Trippa alla Romana T he term quinto quarto, "the fifth quarter," re- fers to a type of cui- sine born from poor, peasant kitchens, and the term itself originates from Rome.The fifth quarter refers to everything that is not included in the four quarters in which animals were divided after being slaugh- tered. We know of it as offal in English. Quinto quarto includes all that is edible of the entrails: tripe, kid- neys, heart, liver, spleen, sweet- breads (pancreas, thymus and sa- livary glands), brain and tongue. From the sheep, this also includes the coratella (liver, lungs, heart) and from the ox, the tail which is used to prepare one of my favou- rite Roman dishes, coda alla Vac- cinara, oxtail stew. Pig and calf feet are also included in the Quinto Quarto. In the early 20th century, the neighborhood of Testaccio was the location of Rome's slaugh- terhouse. It was the biggest in all of Europe. It's funny to think how stron- gly slaughterhouse practices in- fluenced the cucina Romana. Everywhere, a slaughterhouse provided meat for those who could afford it. Rome is a perfect exam- ple of this during the 18th, 19th and even early 20th centuries, when meat was distributed accor- ding to social class. Each animal was divided into quarters (quarti), The first quarter (primo quarto), consisted of the best cuts and these went to the nobility. The second quarter was for the clergy. The third quarter (terzo quarto) was for the bourgeois (or merchant) class, and the fourth quarter was for sol- diers. All that was leftover be- came quinto quarto and was di- stributed among the rest of the po- pulation. All those leftover bits, which when weighed amount to one quarter of the total weight of the carcass is the 5 th quarter! The hard working slaughterhouse workers were usually paid measly salaries that were supplemented with a share of the offal. They had two choices in order to make ends meet: sell the offal to local trattorie in their neighborhood, or take these parts home to their wi- ves who would have the challenge of turning a bag of lamb intestines into a tasty dinner. Thanks to these resourceful and inventive wives and cooks of the late 19th century, delicious quinto quarto recipes were born. These recipes gradually were incorpora- ted into Roman cuisine and now make up a large part of the tradi- tional food we eat in Rome. So, although recipes made from the fifth quarter have poor origins, they are very much eaten today in many a trattoria and even in fine dining restaurants. The fifth quarter has become the protagonist of excellent but inexpensive dishes which are now celebrated and have become trendy (think "nose to tail" di- ning). It is important to remember their origins lie in what is called la cucina povera - the cuisine of the poor, or peasant kitchen. It was not only born off the habit of making use of what was available but, even more basically, it was created out of the need to avoid going hungry. While all of Italy's regions uti- lize offal for traditional recipes, the most widespread element of the fifth quarter is undoubtedly tripe, and recipes vary from region to region.In Rome, apart from tripe, la pajata is the most impor- tant protagonist of quinto quarto cuisine, as part of the typically Roman pasta dish, rigatoni con la pajata. Pajata is the term for the small intestines of an unweaned - that is only fed on its mother's milk - calf or lamb. The intestines are cleaned and skinned, but the chyme which is rich and creamy is left inside. Remaining in Lazio, we'll find coda alla vaccinara: ox tail stewis slow cooked with tomato and the addition of bitter cocoa, pine nuts, raisins and/or candied peel. Another favorite is lamb coratella cooked with arti- chokes and it is commonly eaten on toasted crostini. Today I will share the recipe for Trippa alla Romana, Roman tripe, which is flavored with Ro- man mint, mentuccia, and seaso- ned with abundant Pecorino Ro- mano. There were many years where I wouldn't eat tripe, and I under- stand it isn't loved by everyone. My mother never cooked it and if my father ever wanted tripe, he would satisfy those cravings by visiting his mother, my Nonna Concetta. My Calabrian Nonna knew how to keep her son happy! Tripe is usually made from the muscle wall of only the first three cham- bers of a cow's stomach: the first stomach produces the rumen (blanket/flat/smooth tripe), the se- cond stomach, the reticulum (ho- neycomb and pocket tripe), and the third stomach, the omasum (book/leaf tripe). I use both the reticulum and the omasum tripe for this recipe. I like the honey- They were part of the so called Quinto Quarto, the part of the animal left over the sale of the best cuts of meat Photo: Toni Brancatisano Tripes are a staple of Roman cuisine, but also of that of Northern Italy @Toni Brancatisano LA BUONA TAVOLA RECIPES COOKING TIPS SEASONAL DISHES TONI BRANCATISANO Continued to page 36

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