The Splendid Varieties Of Italian Food
Italy carries a well-established and deserved history for producing high-quality food and tasty cuisines. While mainly famous for its pizzas and pasta, Italian food also has a good amount of mouth watering sea food and meat dishes, apart from some wonderful desserts and cheeses.
Food in Italy is a means of spending quality time and bond with family and friends. Italian cuisine is about attention to detail that goes into creating each dish just perfect. Italian food varies from region to region and are generally simple and easy to prepare. A few of the popular ingredients utilised in many Italian recipes include potato, bell pepper and tomato. Cheese is considered an important ingredient and is utilized most Italian dishes.
It has often been noted that Italy is a place of great regional variations – and that is certainly true, indeed the country was only unified in 1861 – and this fact is reflected in the diversity of Italy’s regional cuisine. 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 variety and origin of its cuisines.
Lets take a short 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 from 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.
- Pizzas and Mozzarellas originated from Naples.
- Many Roman and Italian cuisines generously use cheese made out of sheep’s milk, also knows as pecorino.
- Calabria (the region corresponding to the “toe” of Italy) is renowned because of its spicy kind of salami
- Sardinia is well-known for its lamb and pecorino (cheese made out of sheep’s milk).
- Touch of Arab influence is noticeable in Sicilian cuisines that use ample pistachio and lemon. seafood is especially good here with swordfish and tuna based delicacies being more prominent.
For additional information and videos on pasta recipes and other Italian dishes please visit Italian Cuisines
