Why is Italian food simply the best?

As a rough guide, this article sets out to answer its title question by reviewing the following five sub-sections:

1. What is Italian food?
2. Regional dishes.
3. International favourites.
4. 5 basic store cupboard ingredients.
5. A few simple Italian meals and snacks.

What is Italian food?
The Italian diet is a healthy and varied one. Ingredients are readily available, and the most popular dishes are among the cheapest to make. Italian food has developed over centuries at the heart of Europe. Italian food has benefitted from the influence of many other cultures from as far away as the Orient (exotic spices and rich herbs), and Africa (sweet spices, almonds, dates, etc.). With the exception of nobility and clergy, most Italians didn’t travel until after WWII, so many recipes are unique to small geographical areas. Whether from the north or south, Italians often have better things to do with their time than cook, so most meals tend to be quick or easy to make, often both! A slowly simmering stew may take hours to cook, but only minutes to prepare the ingredients. Pasta sauces are often created in the time it takes for pasta to cook.

Regional Dishes
There are many differences between regions, but the differences between north and south are most noticeable. The southern Mediterranean regions are what we are probably more familiar with: rich tomato sauces, garlic, olive oil, fish, thick pasta and strong flavours. Northern cuisine tends to prefer beans, meat and subtler flavourings, and pesto (oil, basil, pine nuts and parmesan) in place of tomato-based sauces. Northern food also shares similarities with regional French and German cuisine, such as strudel and sauerkraut!

Typical Ingredients:

SOUTH

NORTH

Mediterranean climatic influences

Northern European climatic influences

Tomato sauces

Pesto and creamy sauces

Olive oil

Olive oil and butter

Thick, chewy, dried pasta, couscous

Fine, fresh egg , pasta, rice and polenta

Cheaper cuts of meat

Thick cuts of beef steak and pork

Fish

Tripe liver, wild game

Olives, dates, fennel sweet spices

Beans, cereal, vegetables

International Favourites
After WWII Italian cooking did not stay a secret for long. Many Italian families had emigrated to the United States and Europe, taking their family’s favourite recipes with them. The long-term financial effects of the war also meant that cooks looked toward Italian cuisine as a tasty, healthy, cheap and convenient food source. Today pizza and pasta can be found anywhere in the western world—it’s the ancestor of modern fast food!

A Brief History of Pizza Pie.
People all over the globe have eaten stuffed bread without calling it a sandwich for many centuries. Southern Italian farmers could not expect to work all day without a filling lunch. Wives and mothers would make a round, flat bread and fill it with handy ingredients, fold it over, and bake it so the filling did not escape. These Italian pasties were not dissimilar to our Cornish Pasties, and we can find them on most modern Italian menus as ‘Calzone’: the folded pizza. Today’s modern pizza is attributed to the late 1800s, when Raffaele Esposito, a Neapolitan baker, is believed to have created the dish for the royal visit of the King Umberto and his consort, Queen Margherita. That ‘margherita pizza’ was made with tomato sauce (red), buffalo mozzarella cheese (white), and fresh basil leaves (green), which proudly made up the colours of the Italian flag. The royal party was so impressed that the pizza’s popularity soon spread.

A Brief History of Pasta
Many people still believe the myth that the famous Venetian explorer, Marco Polo, introduced noodles from China to the Italian diet. The truth is that Italians were eating pasta hundreds of years before he was born. Durum wheat pasta was found to be in use in eight century Italy. Today it is still milled into semolina flour and used as the main ingredient. Italy’s long history of conquering and being conquered ensured that pasta popularity soon spread and was available in many Mediterranean ports from the 12th century onward.


Five Basic Store Cupboard Ingredients

1. Tin of tomatoes.
All the major supermarkets sell 400g tins of peeled, plum tomatoes for less than 50p. One of these tins can comfortably feed a family of four when used as a base to pizza, pasta or stew/soup dishes. The only difference between peeled plum tomatoes and chopped plum tomatoes is price. It pays to chop your own!

2. Mixed herbs and seasoning.
There is no need to buy specific herbs such as basil, sage and oregano. All of these herbs are found in a typical pack of mixed herbs. Tesco’s value range are less than 20p, and other major supermarkets have similar products at similar prices. Salt and pepper are also similar prices. Garlic salt, chili, and a variety of other store cupboard ingredients, are all adaptable to Italian cooking.

3. Pasta.
Dried pasta in a variety of shapes and sizes can be bought cheaply. The different shapes were invented as expressions of creativity by the women of particular areas of Italy, but all taste very similar. How you present them is up to you! While pasta is easy to make, it’s cheaper to buy and adapt. For example, Cannelloni (fat pasta tubes) and Ravioli (stuffed, plump, quilted squares) can be expensive, but lasagna sheets are not. Once cooked in hot water until tender, lasagna sheets can be molded into a variety of pasta shapes.

4. Plain and/or Strong flour.
This can be wholemeal to make it even healthier. Flour, salt, and oil make a variety of bread bases and dumplings (gnocchi). It’s always handy in the store cupboard for non-Italian cooking, too, such as pancakes! Durum wheat flour (semolina) is best for pasta, but with a wide variety available cheaply, it’s much simpler and cost effective to buy dried.

5. Olive oil.
While this may seem expensive, compared to the cost of other oils, such as sunflower and vegetable, olive oil is one of the healthiest oils there is. It can be used in cooking as well as on salads and in dressings.

Fresh Vegetables
Onions, garlic, eggplant, courgette… any seasonal vegetables can be used in Italian cooking to bolster your sauces and serve with risottos and pasta dishes. An Italian diet is one of the healthiest in the world; an Italian’s life expectancy is into the 80s!

5 Simple Italian Recipes

ROASTED ITALIAN VEGETABLES
Roasted vegetables make up the main bulk of soups, pastas and risottos. They are also delightful as a side dish to everyday meals, and a great way to get to your ‘5 a day’ in one sitting!

Ingredients
Any fresh seasonal vegetables (favourites included: fresh salad tomatoes, red onion, fennel, leek, peppers, courgette)
Olive oil
Mixed herbs
Your preferred seasoning (pepper, chili, garlic, etc.)
Lime, or lemon juice

Method
Chop the vegetables into cubes and quarters.
Spray olive oil (or wipe a thin layer of olive oil) over a baking tray to grease it.
Spread the chopped vegetables in an even layer on the baking tray.
Liberally shake herbs and seasoning over the vegetables and squeezed citrus juice over the top
Cover loosely with tinfoil and bake at the top of a hot oven for twenty minutes.
Uncover and continue to bake on high for ten minutes or until the vegetables begin to caramelize.
Serve hot as a sidedish, or use in other Italian dishes.


FRIDAY ARRABIATA
Northern Italians were famed for tripe (sheep intestine!) dishes on a Friday, until a papal rule asked Catholics to eat fish on a Friday. Although this practice is a little old fashioned, many Italians still traditionally eat fish on a Friday and this spicy tomato based sauce is great with any oily fish such as sardines, mackerel, salmon, or tuna.

Ingredients
Any oily fish of choice (sardines and mackerel are favourites)
1 x Onion
¼ teaspoon of chili powder
1 x dash of Worcester (or any fish sauce)
1 x dash of pepper sauce
Olive oil
Mixed herbs
Your preferred seasoning (pepper, chili, garlic, etc.)
1 x 400g tin of tomatoes
200g of dried pasta

Method
Pop the pasta in a pan, cover with water and bring to the boil and simmer.
Meanwhile, fry the onions in the olive oil, and add any other vegetable that you would like to use, and cook until the onions are see through.
If using fresh fish, cube the fish and add to the onions. Continue frying until sealed.
Add all the other ingredients and simmer until the pasta is cooked (ten to fifteen minutes)
If using tinned (already cooked) fish, stir in toward the end of cooking and warm through.
Serve with the cooked, drained, pasta.

PIZZA PIE (AND CALZONE)
Making your own pizza base can be a little time-consuming, so quick snack pizza can be made by using sliced bread, the topping below, and then toasted under the grill. It’s a slice of Italy that kids love to snack on that you can make in less than five minutes!

Ingredients
Base
Strong white flour (about 500g)
Warm water (about 200ml)
Salt
Olive Oil
1 x tsp Yeast
1 x tsp Sugar

Method
Mix Yeast and sugar with warm water and allow to ferment.
Add salt to flour and drizzle in a good amount of olive oil.
Gradually add the yeasty warm water to the flour and bring together.
Knead for ten minutes, cover with a damp cloth or clingfilm and leave in a warm place to rise for 30 mins.
Separate into dough balls, roll out to the desired size of pizza and place on greased baking trays. Cover with oiled clingfilm and leave to rise while you make the sauce (approx. 10 mins)

Ingredients
Sauce
1 x box or jar of passata (Italian sieved tomatoes).
Mixed herbs and seasoning
Finely chopped garlic
1 x dash of pepper sauce

Method
Mix all ingredients together in a container.

To make the pizza, spread the sauce on one of the dough bases and then add a topping followed by sprinkled grated cheese.

Toppings
Use your imagination! Any fresh vegetables, meat, and leftovers can be used.
Top with grated cheese and cook on the middle shelf of a hot oven for 10 to 15 minutes.
Serve with a fresh salad drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

PASTA BAKE
This recipe is great for when you’re in a rush. It’s hearty and will fill the tummies of any family. Use their favourite ingredients to create your own unique ‘family’ recipe to hand down the generations!

Ingredients
Any fish, meat or vegetables of your choice
1 x Onion
1 x dash of pepper sauce
Olive oil
Mixed herbs
Your preferred seasoning (pepper, chili, garlic, etc.)
1 x 400g tin of tomatoes
200g of dried pasta
400mls of cheese sauce *see cheese sauce method below
Grated cheese

*Cheese Sauce
This basic cheese sauce can be used in numerous Italian dishes, such as Macaroni, Carbonara, Lasagne and Cannelloni.

Ingredients
Half a litre of milk
1 x tsp English mustard
2 x tsp of cornflour
200g grated cheese

Cheese Sauce Method
Add cold milk to a pan with the other ingredients. Constantly stir while bringing to the boil. Once the sauce thickens, reduce the heat and add the grated cheese.
Continue stirring until melted and remove from heat. Use quickly before a ‘skin’ develops on top of the sauce.

Pasta Bake Method
Pop the pasta in a pan, cover with water and bring to the boil and simmer.
Meanwhile, fry the onions in the olive oil.
Once the onions are see through add all the other ingredients, bring to boil and then simmer until the pasta is cooked (ten to fifteen minutes).
Make your Cheese sauce while you wait.
Drain the pasta and stir in the tomato based sauce.
Tip this into a large casserole dish, top with cheese sauce, cover with tinfoil and bake in a medium heated oven for twenty to thirty minutes.
Before the end of your cooking time, remove the tinfoil and sprinkle on grated cheese.


TUSCAN BEAN SOUP

1x onion
1x red pepper
1x tin of tomatoes
¼ pint of vegetable buillion stock/ or beef stock
1x tin of mixed beans
1x garlic segment
Dash of Chiloula, or Tabasco to taste
Pinch of Cayenne pepper
Fresh ground black pepper
Pinch of mixed herbs
Pinch of Chili Powder
1x fresh bay leaf

Chop and fry the onion and red pepper until done and then add chili powder, mixed herbs, black and Cayenne pepper. Add the stock and Simmer for 5 minutes. Whizz in a blender and then return to the heat. Add tinned tomatoes, garlic, bay leaf and Chiloula. Simmer for 20 mins. Remove bay leaf and add the beans. Warm through and serve. Best left overnight to develop flavours.

© Copyright 2010 Acme (UN: acme at Writing.Com). All rights reserved.
Acme has granted Writing.Com, its affiliates and syndicates non-exclusive rights to display this work.