Italian Recipes

Italian cuisine is respected, loved, and eaten all over the world. Outside of Italy, the best-known dishes include pizza and pasta, but Italian food has much else to offer too, including excellent meat and seafood dishes, superb cheeses, and a wonderful range of desserts.

Italian pasta

As far as pasta is concerned there are many times. The most popular type is spaghetti, which is long thing strings of pasta (spaghetti actually means "thin strings"). Other popular types include vermicelli (also string-like), fettucine and linguine (ribbon-shaped), lasagna (large sheets), rotelle and farfalle (decorative shapes), and, ravioli and tortellini (stuffed pasta). Although all forms of pasta are made from basically the same ingredients, the different shapes do affect the taste and choice of recipe, because each individual shape interacts with sauce in a different way.

Spaghetti cooked and served with tomato sauce

Spaghetti cooked and served with tomato sauce

Italy is a country of great regional contrasts, and this fact is reflected in its food. Additionally, many outside influences have contributed to Italian cuisine (although the legend that Marco Polo introduced pasta from China does appear to be apocryphyl).

Some of the region dishes and ingredients that you may encounter in Italian food include:

Sardinia is famous for its lamb and pecorino (cheese made from sheep's milk).
Arab influence played an important part in the development of Sicilian cuisine, including the introduction of lemon and pistachio. Sicily is also known for its seafood, particularly swordfish and tuna, but it is in desserts where the island has had the greatest influence of all: both gelato (ice cream) and granita (a delicious semi-frozen dessert made using sugar, water and flavorings) originate from Sicily.
Calabria (the region corresponding to the "toe" of Italy) is known for its spicy version of salami.
Naples is the home of mozzarella, pizza and sfogliatelle (Italian filled pastries).
Whereas Sicilian and Neopolitan pizzas are quite thick, Roman pizzas extremely thin. Rome is also known for its use of offal and pecorino (cheese made from sheep's milk).
Tuscany is known for its meat, white beans and unsalted bread.
Products from the North of Italy include balsamic vinegar, lasagna, mortadella (a heat-cured pork sausage, served as a cold cut) parmigiano (parmesan cheese) polenta (a dish made from boiled corn-meal), prosciutto (dry cured ham), ragu (bolognese sauce), rice and tortellini (stuffed pasta). Piedmont and Lombardy both produce their own distinctive (and different from each other) variety of rice, and both forms are used to make risotto.

Here are some recipe books and cookbooks for Italian food:

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