Lampredotto Sandwich

Typical Florentine Street Food
Lampredotto is one of the four stomachs of a cow, the fourth to be exact. The name “lampredotto” comes from the visible resemblance to the mouth of the lamprey eel which used to inhabit the Arno in days long gone. There are many stories regarding the birth of the “panino con lampredotto,” or lampredotto sandwich, but the most often repeated takes us back to Florence during the 1400s, when small shops specialized in lampredotto and tripe, specialists in cleaning, preparing and cooking these lesser cuts of the cow.
Perhaps more curious is another theory which dates the birth of lampredotto to the siege of Florence in the 1500s by Charles V of Spain. During the siege the more prized cuts of beef were unavailable and the Florentine citizens began cooking the lesser cuts which were once considered scrap. From this necessity was born a new dish, now ingrained in the city and a symbol of Florentine food, a Must Eat.

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