The First Thing I’ll Eat When Italy’s Restaurants Reopen Is a Cow-Stomach Sandwich
It’s not the most delicious thing I’ve eaten, but it is the most rewarding
I will never forget my first panino al lampredotto.
It was a hot Saturday morning in July at Da Nerbone, a famous stall in Florence’s Mercato Centrale that has specialized in simple primi piatti, herby porchetta, and panini al lampredotto, the city’s famous sandwiches of boiled cow stomach, since 1872.
I ordered my panino piccante and received a hot plastic sack of meat with that particular offal smell and bread soaked in its juices. I ate with my elbows on the counter, sweating from the spiciness of the chile sauce and the searing summer heat. Cooking broth dripped down my chin as big chewy bits of meat that I couldn’t sever with my teeth escaped from the bun — with nowhere to go but inside my mouth. I chewed with fortitude until nothing was left.
I had done it. I was part of the club. I liked lampredotto.
If only it were that easy.
