Italian Cuisine

Most people’s idea of Italian cuisine is a combination of tortellini, minestrone, spaghetti, and lasagna. If you visit Italy with such an narrow view of Italian cuisine, you will be pleasantly surprised at the variety of food that the Italians eat.

The reason for this variety is simple. Italy has nineteen regions, each with its distinct cuisine. In addition, Italian cuisine changes according to the seasons. Fresh ingredients are of utmost importance in an Italian kitchen. As a result, you will discover that the summer cuisine is different from the winter cuisine.

North Italian Cuisine

Usually, Americans are familiar with the part of Italian cuisine that is typical of north Italy. All the heavy dishes loaded with cheese and rich sauce comes from this reason. You will enjoy a stay in north Italy if you enjoy the Italian food available in America.

Although you will be familiar with north Italian cuisine, you will still be surprised by the wonderful differences in authentic north Italian food and the Italian fare available in America.

South Italian Cuisine

The cuisine of south Italy is different. The people of south Italy use more fish in their diet. This variant of Italian cuisine is named “Mediterranean food.” Read the rest of this entry »

What makes good Italian food and a great Italian restaurant? This is what I think.

Italy has a wonderful tradition of fine food. Italian food’s importance to Italian culture cannot be overstated. It is one of the central elements, and why shouldn’t it be? Think about Italy’s geography for a second:

• It runs a long way from north to south. Therefore, it has a wide array of growing seasons and soil types. This means a rich diversity of ingredients for food.
• It is a peninsula, meaning it is nearly surrounded by the sea but also connected to the great Eurasian land mass. There is an abundance of fresh seafood and foreign ingredients from neighboring lands.
• It sits between Europe and Africa in the Mediterranean. All Mediterranean cultures have excellent food traditions from North Africa to Lebanon and Israel, France, Greece, Spain and, of course, Italy.

When you think of noodles and pasta, you probably think of Italy, but those wonderful inventions came to Italy from China thanks to Marco Polo. It tells you a lot about Italian food culture that something so basic became associated with Italy even though it did not originate there. Read the rest of this entry »

The Italian food culture concerns not only what we see at Italian tables or in a rich Italian restaurant menu.

It is something much deeper in Italians’ DNA.

Italians have some beliefs that go beyond education or tradition.

Concerning pasta

An easy example could be the pasta shapes and their seasonings. Considering that among dry pasta (the ones you usually buy inside paper or plastic bags that last for long) the difference is only the shape of it, nothing else, the shape itself is something very important for Italians.

There’s a traditional pasta sauce recipe from Roma region called Pasta all’amatriciana (it’s a tasty sauce made with tomatoes and bacon). Usually it’s served using the bucatini pasta (kind of huge spaghetti with a hole in its middle). An Italian woman was disgusted hearing her hairdress telling her colleague that preferred it with short pasta. She said: “Don’t ask me why. It just is as it is. Amatriciana must go with long pasta. How can one imagine of cooking it with short pasta?” The same goes for pasta with oil and garlic (aglio e olio), you probably will never see it served using any other pasta that isn’t spaghetti. Read the rest of this entry »