Quinto quarto

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In the cuisine of modern Rome quinto quarto is the offal (literally the "fifth quarter") of butchered animals. The name makes sense on more than one level: because offal amounts to about a fourth of the weight of the carcass; because the importance of offal in Italian cooking is at least as great as any of the outer quarters, fore and hind; and because in the past slaughterhouse workers were partly paid in kind with a share of the offal.

Offal cuisine is particularly rich in Rome in spring, when not only beef and pork but also suckling lamb and kid offal appears on trattoria menus. Typical dishes include:

• pajata (suckling kid, lamb or veal intestines)
• coratella (heart, lung and oesophagus of lamb or kind, sautéed with artichoke
• testarelle (whole roasted lamb's or kid's head

[edit] Bibliography

• David Downie, Cooking the Roman Way. New York: HarperCollins, 2002