The Wonderfful Variety Of Italian Food

Italy has a well-established and deserved history for making high-quality recipes and mouth-watering cuisines. While mainly famous for their pizzas and pasta, Italian food also has an abundance 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 all 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. Some of the popular ingredients utilised in various Italian dishes include potato, bell pepper and tomato. Cheese is considered a necessary ingredient and is utilized the majority Italian dishes.

It has often been noted that Italy is a country 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 variability and origin of its cuisines.

Lets take a brief gander on some of the Italian cuisines:

- Lasagna, balsamic vinegar, mortadella, polenta, polenta, tortellini are some of the native Italian cuisines. Before you ask let me give a brief description of the all food mentioned. Mortadella is pork sausage that is cut, hear cured and served cold. Polenta is a dish made using boiled commeal and tortellini is stuffed pasta.

- Tuscan cuisine often features meat, white beans and unsalted bread.

- Mozzarella and pizza, in addition to sfogliatelle (Italian filled pastries) originate from Naples.

- Many Roman and Italian cuisines generously use cheese made out of sheep’s milk, also knows as pecorino.

- Calabria (the region likened to the “toe” of Italy) is renowned because of its spicy variety of salami

- Sardinia is well-known for its lamb and pecorino (cheese made from sheep’s milk).

- Sicilian cuisine is noted for its Arab influences in its cooking (with the use of lemon and pistachio), as well as for its seafood (including tuna and swordfish). Sicily is also the home of gelato (ice cream) and granita (a delicious semi-frozen dessert made using sugar, water and flavorings).

For more information and videos on Best pasta recipes and other Italian food please go to Great Italian Recipes