Italian Cuisine

    Italian Cuisine is considered the source of the mother of all western coking and the fully developed cuisine in Europe. It is derived greek gourmet tradition. Throughout the century these culinary traditions became firmly established in Italy and gradually attained perfection in the country that had adopted them.

            Modern Italian Cuisine can be identified by its two branches: the northern which uses rice, meat, butter and cheese, and the southern which uses pasta, fish, vegetables, and olive oil. Northern Italian Cuisine produced the culinary institute of cheese making, including soft mascarpone and the hard Parmesan.

            Classic ingredients of Italian cooking are anchovies, breadcrumbs, capers, eggplant, mushrooms, olive oil, olives, onions, pancetta, Proscuitto Ham, mortadella sausages, salami, salt pork, tomato sauce/paste and a variety of cheeses including Parmesan, Provolone, mozzarella, fontina, ricotta, gorgonzola, and mascarpone.

             Italian regional cooking gives the national cuisine its legendary appeal, extraordinary diversity, and a cheerful spirit. The great attraction of modern Italian cooking lies in the quality and variety of its ingredients and it is for this reason that hardcore Italian specialties are regional even local. Bologna the house of northern cookery, is famous for its flat, ribbony egg noodles called tagliatelle, Bolognese, Parma Ham, and Sausages. On the other hand, Neapolitan cooking is the heart of southern Italian Cuisine. It’s Pizzas and desserts, gelatin and granite have left their humble food impression on people around the world.

             Italian have developed the preparation of dishes based on the ingredients of the basic food to a fine art. Herbs are used extensively, especially basil, thyme, sage, oregano, rosemary, and parsley.

             Italy has a variety of bread, with many regional versions of flatbread, traditional loaf, and sourdough. Some well-known bread such as Focaccia, Ciabatta, Tuscan Bread, etc. In Italian food culture, some important rules are followed when it comes to eating bread. Bread should always be eaten with other food, but it shouldn’t eat with starchy food and that’s the reason in Italy its rarely served with pasta.

             Italian Pasta has a world-wide reputation. It is a staple food ingredient of Italian Cuisine. Pasta dived into two types, dried(Pasta Secca) and Fresh (Pasta Fresca). Dried pasta is mostly Commercially made, can be possible to make at home also. Fresh pasta traditionally is handmade, sometimes by use of simple pasta machine. There are many shapes and varieties of both types of pasta. A pasta dish is generally simple, but individual dishes vary in preparation. Pasta can be served at different courses. The Pasta sauce also varies in terms of taste, color & texture. Some well-known sauce is Arabitta Sauce, Marinara Sauce, Bolognese Sauce, Carbonara Sauce, Pesto Sauce, etc.

            Risotto is one of the most common ways to cook rice in Italy. This northern Italian delicacy is basically, cooking rice along with any flavorful broth until it reaches a creamy consistency. Other common elements include butter, shallots, white wine, and Parmesan Cheese. Saffron was used for flavor, which eventually gives it's signature yellow color(Risotto Alla Milanese).

             

            Pizza is also one of the most popular Italian delicacies across the world. This is round shape flat leavened flour-based dough, topped with ripe tomatoes, cheese, and variation of multiple-choice ingredients, which is then baked at high temperature traditionally in a wood-fired oven. The most common cheese used for pizza is mozzarella cheese.

            Desserts are loved in Italy but the repertoire of recipes is not as broad as main dishes. Tiramisu, Panna cotta, Gelato (Italian Ice-cream) are well-known desserts loved throughout the world.