Cuisine of Italy: 16 Dishes From Different Regions of the Country

Ital­ian cui­sine is orig­i­nal and mul­ti­fac­eted. It was this coun­try that gave the world many won­der­ful dish­es that have become pop­u­lar all over the world — first of all, these are all kinds of pas­ta and piz­za. In this arti­cle, I will tell you about the most out­stand­ing Ital­ian dish­es from dif­fer­ent parts of the coun­try. Among hun­dreds of types of pas­ta and piz­za cook­ing options, only the most pop­u­lar ones are pre­sent­ed here. While read­ing the arti­cle, you will cer­tain­ly have an appetite, so it is best not to do this on an emp­ty stom­ach.

Orecchiette with turnip leaves, Puglia

The name of this Pulian pas­ta comes from its shape, which resem­bles a small ear (orec­chi­ette lit­er­al­ly trans­lates as “small ears”). Orec­chi­ettes are ide­al because of their abil­i­ty to retain the sauce thanks to a spe­cial inter­nal cav­i­ty. Orec­chi­ette is first sim­mered with green turnips to absorb their rich fla­vor, then sautéed with anchovies, minced gar­lic and a light chilli.

Pizza Margherita, Campania

This piz­za is named after Queen Margheri­ta of Savoy, wife of King Umber­to I, who vis­it­ed Naples in 1889. Piz­za Margheri­ta adopts the col­ors of the Ital­ian flag: red (toma­to), white (moz­zarel­la) and green (basil). Authen­tic Margheri­ta is made exclu­sive­ly by hand from scratch (no rolling pins!). It is baked only in a wood­en brick oven at 485 degrees. Neapoli­tan piz­za is always soft and flex­i­ble, with a raised edge (cor­ni­cione), unlike the crispy Roman piz­za. In each region of the coun­try, Ital­ian cui­sine acquires its own fla­vor, dif­fer­ent from its neigh­bors.

Risotto alla Milanese, Lombardy

For the prepa­ra­tion of risot­to alla milanese, a short grain of arbo­rio, or carnaroli rice, is used, which grows in abun­dance in the low­lands of Tici­no. Rice is fried in a fry­ing pan with a lit­tle fat, onion and oil, and con­stant­ly stirred. Dur­ing cook­ing, the chef grad­u­al­ly adds beef broth to enhance the fla­vor. The saf­fron gives the risot­to its gold­en tone, while the parme­san makes the dish creami­er. Risot­to alla Milanese is often served with young veal.

Trofi al Pesto, Liguria

This undu­lat­ing Lig­uri­an pas­ta is hand­made from flour and water and served with a deli­cious pesto sauce. Basil, gar­lic, pine nuts, olive oil and a pinch of salt are the key ingre­di­ents of the pas­ta and are ground in a blender, after which the grat­ed cheese is added. Tro­phy is boiled in boil­ing water until al dente (light readi­ness). Pesto sauce is mixed with pas­ta and pecori­no cheese is added on top.

Panzerotti Basilicata

Panze­rot­ti are cres­cent-shaped and are tra­di­tion­al­ly filled with toma­toes and melt­ed moz­zarel­la, although there are many oth­er fill­ings, includ­ing spinach, mush­rooms, olives, anchovies, and ham. These small pas­try envelopes are sim­i­lar to a ham-and-cheese pie, but dif­fer in size and are deep-fried. Because they fill with hot air, it’s best to pierce the panze­rot­ti first and let the steam escape so as not to burn your mouth. This typ­i­cal Ital­ian street food is eat­en as a snack in the morn­ing or dur­ing the day.

Arrosticini, Abruzzo

These juicy cuts of lamb are grilled on a bar­be­cue, or on a spe­cial bra­zier. Lamb fat is some­times placed between cuts of meat to make it soft­er and more ten­der. Arrostici­ni are served wrapped in foil and are most often eat­en with the hands. This Ital­ian dish is served with chili pep­pers and home­made bread soaked in olive oil. It is best to drink this deli­cious meat with a glass of red Mon­tepul­ciano d’Abruz­zo. It is also a very pop­u­lar Ital­ian street food dish.

Arancini, Sicily

These stuffed rice balls are bread­ed and well fried. The dish gets its name from the orange-like shape and col­or (aranci­ni means “small orange”). In east­ern Sici­ly, aranci­ni are con­i­cal in shape. They are most often filled with toma­to sauce, moz­zarel­la, stew (bolog­nese sauce) and peas. The aranci­ni are believed to have orig­i­nat­ed around the tenth cen­tu­ry when Sici­ly was under Arab rule. It was at this time that rice was intro­duced to the island.

Bucatini Amatriciana, Lazio

Sauce Ama­tri­ciana (ama­tri­ciana) got its name from the city of Ama­trice in the Lazio region. This deli­cious pas­ta sauce is made with guan­ciale (ham of pork), sweet toma­to and chili pep­pers. Buca­ti­ni (a long, hol­low, tubu­lar pas­ta sim­i­lar to spaghet­ti) is cooked to al dente, then mixed with sauce and a lit­tle grat­ed pecori­no cheese.

Vincigrassi, Marche

It is believed that vin­cis­gras­si lasagna was first pre­pared in hon­or of the Aus­tri­an gen­er­al Windisch Graetz, who fought against Napoleon in 1799 while defend­ing the city of Ancona (the name vin­cis­gras­si comes from a mis­pro­nun­ci­a­tion of the gen­er­al’s name). This baked pas­ta dish fea­tures lay­ers of meat (beef, pork, chick­en and goose giblets) mixed with bolog­nese sauce and sea­soned with a creamy bechamel sauce. Top the dish with grat­ed parme­san cheese.

Florentine steak, Tuscany

Flo­ren­tine steak is served medi­um rare. This is a juicy T‑bone steak grilled over char­coal. Out­side, it is cov­ered with a dark crust, but juice always remains inside. Tra­di­tion­al­ly, the Flo­ren­tine steak is made from Tus­can Chi­an­i­na ox, although Span­ish beef is more com­mon­ly used these days. The steak is sea­soned with salt, black pep­per and olive oil.

Cappelletti in broth, Emilia-Romagna

Egg paste is stuffed with meat and served in fra­grant chick­en broth. Small strips of dough are filled with meat and fold­ed into a cres­cent shape. The cor­ners of the pas­ta are attract­ed to each oth­er and stuck togeth­er, shaped like a medieval hat (cap­pel­let­ti lit­er­al­ly means “lit­tle hats”). Cap­pelet­ti are cooked in a sim­mer­ing broth over low heat until they float to the sur­face (approx­i­mate­ly five min­utes). Cap­pel­let­ti in broth is tra­di­tion­al­ly eat­en at Christ­mas.

Frico with potatoes, Friuli Venezia Giulia

Sim­i­lar to an omelette, pota­to frico is made from thin­ly sliced ​​or grat­ed pota­toes fried in oil with onions. Pota­toes are mixed with Mon­ta­sio cheese, after which the dish is cooked for twen­ty min­utes. Once the pota­toes are ready and the cheese has melt­ed, the ingre­di­ents are gen­tly fried in a pan with a lit­tle fat until gold­en brown.

Sardine in saor sauce, Veneto

This Venet­ian Ital­ian plat­ter con­sists of roast­ed sar­dines, pine nuts, raisins and caramelized onions cooked with vine­gar. The prepa­ra­tion of sar­dine in saor sauce spread thanks to the Venet­ian sailors, who had to some­how store the fish on the high seas. Sweet and sour saor sar­dines taste much bet­ter if left to mar­i­nate for 24 hours. Now it is an inte­gral part of Ital­ian cui­sine, like pas­ta or piz­za.

Onion soup, Calabria

This soul­ful soup is tra­di­tion­al­ly made with sweet onions from Tro­pea in Cal­abria. The area extends along the Tyrrhen­ian Sea, where this onion has been cul­ti­vat­ed for more than two thou­sand years. The micro­cli­mate, fer­tile soil and prox­im­i­ty to the sea con­tribute to its unique taste. The onion is peeled, thin­ly sliced ​​and cooked in fat in boil­ing water. At the end of cook­ing, hot chili pep­pers are added. Licur­dia onion soup is served in spe­cial bowls mixed with bread.

Egg balls, Molise

Made from cheese, egg and bread, pal­lotte (egg balls) are cooked in a toma­to sauce with red pep­per. The bread is soaked in milk and mixed with eggs, pecori­no cheese, pars­ley and gar­lic, then shaped into balls and fried in boil­ing oil. At the end, the pal­lotte is mixed with the sauce and boiled for a few min­utes. Egg balls can be served as a warm appe­tiz­er, or as a veg­e­tar­i­an main course. It’s an inte­gral part Ital­ian cui­sinespread far beyond Molise.

Bagna Cauda, ​​Piedmont

Tra­di­tion­al­ly, banya cau­da was offered as a com­mu­nal dish and placed in the mid­dle of the table. Today, this hot veg­etable dish is served in foy­otes, spe­cial ter­ra­cot­ta pots. Raw, boiled, or fried veg­eta­bles (arti­choke, cab­bage, cel­ery, radish, fen­nel, onion, Jerusalem arti­choke and pep­pers) are sea­soned with sauce and served with bread. Bagna Cau­da is tra­di­tion­al­ly eat­en in autumn and win­ter, as an Ital­ian plat­ter or as a main course.