Italy carries a well-established and deserved reputation for producing high-quality recipes and tasty cuisines. Best known for pizza and pasta, Italian food also consists of many outstanding meat and seafood dishes, and even excellent cheeses, and fabulous desserts.[I:http://www.goodhealthguaranteed.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/PrithviSinha17.jpg]
Food in Italy is a means of spending quality time and bond with family and friends. Italian cuisine is all about attention to detail that goes into creating each dish just perfect. Italian food varies from region to region and are generally simple and straightforward to prepare. A few of the popular ingredients utilised in a lot of Italian recipes include potato, bell pepper and tomato. Cheese is considered an important ingredient and is used in the majority Italian dishes.
Italy was only united in 1861 and thus has great diversity in culture. It is also reflected in its cuisines. It should also be noted that Italy has been invaded often over the centuries, and also involved trading with many other countries, and this too is reflected in the national cuisine.
Lets take a short gander on some of the Italian cuisines:
- Lasagna, balsamic vinegar, mortadella, polenta, polenta, tortellini are a few 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.
- Pizzas and Mozzarellas originated from Naples.
- Roman cuisine often uses pecorino (cheese made from sheep's milk) and offal. Rome is also known for its ultra-thin pizzas
- Calabria (the region likened to the "toe" of Italy) is known because of its spicy variety of salami
- Pecorinio is a sweet dish that is common and famous in Italy. It is essentially a kind of cheese and is made from sheep's milk. Its especially favored in Sardinia.
- Touch of Arab influence is noticeable in Sicilian cuisines that use an abundance 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