Italian food have quite a reputation of being royal and enriching. While mainly famous for their pizzas and pasta, Italian food also has loads of mouth watering sea food and meat dishes, apart from some wonderful desserts and cheeses.
Food in Italy is a way of spending quality time and bond with family and friends. Italian cuisine is about attention to detail that goes to making each dish just perfect. Italian food varies from region to region and are generally simple and straightforward to prepare. A few of the favored ingredients utilised in lots of Italian recipes include potato, bell pepper and tomato. Cheese is regarded as a vital ingredient and is utilized most Italian dishes.
Italy was only united in 1861 and thus has great diversity in culture. It is also reflected in its cuisines. Over the centuries Italy has been invaded many times by different countries, Italy has also been involved in heavy trade and indeed this shows in the variability and origin of its cuisines.
Lets take a brief gander on some of the Italian cuisines:
- Northern Italy's native products include balsamic vinegar, bolognese sauce (ragu), lasagna, mortadella (a heat-cured pork sausage, served as a cold cut) parmigiano (parmesan cheese) polenta (a dish made out of boiled cornmeal), prosciutto (dry cured ham) and tortellini (stuffed pasta). Rice is grown in both Lombardy and Piedmont (although they differ in these two regions), and used to make risotto.
- Tuscan cuisine used white beans, meat and bread.
- Mozzarella and pizza, as well as sfogliatelle (Italian filled pastries) originate from Naples.
- Roman cuisine often uses pecorino (cheese made out of sheep's milk) and offal. Rome is also known for its ultra-thin pizzas
- Calabria (the region corresponding to the "toe" of Italy) is renowned for its spicy variety of salami
- Pecorinio is a sweet dish and is common and famous in Italy. It is basically a kind of cheese that is made from sheep's milk. Its especially favored in Sardinia.
- Touch of Arab influence is noticeable in Sicilian cuisines that use lots of pistachio and lemon. seafood is particularly good here with swordfish and tuna based delicacies being more prominent.
For more information and videos on Best pasta recipes and other Italian food please go to Great Italian Recipes
Posted under Fitness
This post was written by Patrick Ricardo on July 25, 2010



