Italian cuisine

Italian cuisine, traditional meals and cooking techniques developed over centuries in Italy. Although ingredients, recipes, and techniques vary by region and season, several core elements are shared across the country. These include the use of fresh, seasonal ingredients such as tomatoes and onions, soft cheeses, extra virgin olive oil, basil, garlic, and oregano.

Meals are frequently centered on a starch, such as pasta, risotto, or polenta, and are often paired with red or white wine. Dishes that are emblematic of Italian cuisine include pizza, various pasta dishes (such as lasagna and pasta alla carbonara), risotto, osso buco, and tiramisu.

History

The Etruscans, who flourished in parts of northern and central Italy before Rome came to dominate the Italian peninsula, ate a diet based largely on staple crops. Cereals included emmer, wheat, barley, rye, and spelt, which were made into breads, soups, and porridges. Legumes such as broad beans, chickpeas, lentils, and peas were also important. Animal foods included fish, sheep, goats, cattle, boars, birds, hare, and other wild game.

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The Greek historian Poseidonius (c. 135 bce–c. 51 bce), whose account survives in the writings of Athenaeus, described the Etruscans as dining lavishly twice a day at richly decorated tables with silver drinking vessels. Although such accounts may reflect elite practices or Greek perceptions of Etruscan luxury rather than everyday diets, they suggest that elaborate dining traditions had developed in parts of the Italian peninsula well before the rise of the Roman Empire.

The expansion of the Roman Empire connected the Italian peninsula to extensive long-distance trade networks. Goods and foodstuffs reached Rome from across the Mediterranean and beyond, including spices from Asia. Black pepper from India became particularly prized in Roman cooking, while Arabian ports and merchants played an important role in trade between the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean.

One of the earliest Italian cookbooks is believed to have been compiled in the 4th century and is traditionally attributed to the Roman gourmet Marcus Gavius Apicius. Officially titled De re coquinaria (“The Art of Cooking”), the cookbook, commonly known as Apicius, features more than 400 recipes, many of which include pepper as an ingredient. Recipes also commonly incorporate sauces, including a sauce made with fermented fish called garum, and a sauce made with laser, an extraction from silphium. Spices and strongly flavored sauces were prominent features of the elite Roman cooking represented in Apicius.

Long-distance trade declined in western Europe following the fall of the Western Roman Empire but expanded again during the Middle Ages. By the later Middle Ages, Italian city-states such as Venice and Genoa were major European trading centers, importing goods from the eastern Mediterranean and distributing them to markets across Europe.

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Pasta and cheese were well established features of Italian cuisine by the 14th century. In the Decameron, Giovanni Boccaccio described a fantastical land with a mountain of grated parmesan, where people made macaroni and ravioli and cooked them in capon broth.

European contact with the Americas and the resulting Columbian Exchange brought new foods to Europe, including tomatoes, peppers, corn, and squash. Tomatoes in particular eventually became one of the ingredients most closely associated with Italian cooking, especially in pasta dishes and pizza.

Because Italy remained politically divided, its various kingdoms, republics, and territories continued to develop distinct regional culinary traditions. Following the unification of Italy in the 19th century, these traditions increasingly came to be understood collectively as Italian cuisine, although regional differences remain a defining feature of the country’s cuisine.

Cooking techniques

Common cooking techniques include simmering ingredients in wine or broth, braising meats and vegetables, and sautéing or frying foods in butter or olive oil. Grilling imparts a smoky flavor, while roasting enhances foods’ natural sweetness through caramelization and creates a crisp texture.

The evolution of pasta has been driven in large part by Italian innovations in pasta making, including the development of a wide variety of pasta shapes designed to hold different sauces and the refinement of the extrusion press, which forces dough through an extrusion die to shape noodles. The use of bronze dies in extrusion presses also produces noodles with rough, porous surfaces that better absorb sauce and enhance the texture and flavor of pasta dishes.

Regional cuisines and dishes

Italian cuisine has marked regional differences influenced by geography, terrain, climate, and availability of local ingredients.

Northern Italian cuisine is centered around butter, rice, polenta, cream sauces, and meat. Representative dishes include the following:

• Bagna càuda (“hot bath”): A warm dip made with olive oil, anchovies, and garlic, traditionally served with raw vegetables
• Risotto alla Milanese: A creamy rice dish slowly cooked with butter, onions, broth, saffron, and Grana Padano cheese
• Brasato al Barolo: A hearty dish of beef marinated and braised in Barolo wine and traditionally served over creamy polenta

Central Italian cuisine features pasta, olive oil, bread, and meat. Representative dishes include the following:

• Panzanella: A rustic bread salad made with ripe tomatoes, stale bread, olive oil, red wine vinegar, garlic, and herbs
• Strozzapreti con tartufi: Fresh strozzapreti (“priest-strangler”) pasta served in a truffle sauce and topped with black truffle shavings
• Saltimbocca alla Romana: A classic Roman dish of veal cutlets topped with prosciutto and sage and served in a white wine sauce

Southern Italian cuisine is known for its use of tomatoes, pasta, seafood, eggplant, and citrus fruits. Representative dishes include the following:

• Pasta alla Norma: Pasta with sautéed eggplant, tomatoes, tomato sauce, and grated ricotta salata cheese
• Spaghetti allo scoglio: A traditional seafood pasta made with clams, mussels, shrimp, squid, white wine, tomatoes, and olive oil
• Pasta al limone: A lemon-based pasta dish featuring a sauce made with butter, lemon juice, lemon zest, and Parmigiano Reggiano cheese