How well do you know Italian food?
Italian cooking is famous everywhere, yet many of its rules surprise even regular fans. Six questions, from easy to hard, about the stories behind classic dishes.
Did you know?
- Pizza Napoletana's traditional craft, the art of the Neapolitan pizzaiuolo, was added to UNESCO's list of intangible cultural heritage in 2017. Certified pizzerias must follow rules on dough, oven temperature and cooking time.
- A single wheel of Parmigiano Reggiano weighs around 40 kg and needs roughly 550 litres of milk. Some Italian banks have accepted aged wheels as security for loans, storing them in climate-controlled vaults.
- Italians traditionally avoid drinking cappuccino after late morning, believing milky coffee is heavy after a meal. After lunch or dinner, a short espresso is the usual choice.
The rules and regions of Italian cooking
Italian cuisine is really a collection of regional cuisines. For centuries Italy was divided into separate states, and each area developed dishes based on local ingredients: butter and rice in the north, olive oil and tomatoes in the south, seafood along the long coastline. Many Italians still identify their food first by region or town, not by country.
Protected foods
Italy has more food products with protected designation of origin in the European Union than almost any other country. Names like Parmigiano Reggiano, Prosciutto di Parma and Mozzarella di Bufala Campana can only be used by producers in specific areas who follow strict traditional methods, from what cows eat to how long cheeses rest.
Simplicity as a principle
Many classic Italian dishes use only a handful of ingredients. Cooks focus on quality rather than complicated sauces: good olive oil, ripe tomatoes, fresh basil and carefully cooked pasta. This is why debates about 'authentic' recipes can be so passionate — changing one ingredient changes the whole dish.
Pasta shapes with a purpose
There are hundreds of pasta shapes, and each is traditionally paired with certain sauces. Ridged shapes like rigatoni hold chunky sauces, long thin spaghetti suits oil and tomato sauces, and flat ribbons like tagliatelle work with rich meat sauces. The shape affects how much sauce clings to each bite.
Italian food abroad
Italian emigrants carried their cooking to the Americas and beyond, where it adapted to new ingredients. Some dishes famous abroad, such as spaghetti with meatballs, are much more common outside Italy than inside it — a reminder that cuisines keep evolving as people move.
The rhythm of an Italian meal
A traditional Italian meal follows a sequence: antipasto to start, a primo of pasta, rice or soup, a secondo of meat or fish with a side dish called contorno, and finally dessert and coffee. Few people eat every course on a normal weekday, but the structure explains why pasta is usually served as a first course rather than as a large main dish, as it often is abroad.