Italian Cuisine

Archive for December, 2011

Italian Recipes – Culinary Appeal

December 4th, 2011

It is easy to find a wide variety of vegetarian Italian recipes.

Their mouth watering menu has a wholesome mix of soups, salads, lovely pastas to crusty breads. Most cooking depends on the local rice known as Arborio and the cuisine enjoys a rich lineage of cheese.

Italians add life to their food with a variety of herbs, spices and fresh olives primarily cooked in olive oil. Tomatoes are an essential part of every day cooking.

It is well said that Italian cuisine is the mother of South Europe.

Like Indian and Chinese, Italian cuisine also has several regional variations. But unlike the rest, Italian cooking has least blending so as to preserve the unique flavour of every dish.

Sauces lie at the heart of Italian cooking. And serve as an accompaniment to almost every dish whether it is pasta, meat dish or baked vegetables.

Comments Off »

Posted in Articles

Tags: baked vegetables crusty breads hot chilli peppers ragu alla bolognese spicy flavour

Italian Cooking – The 10 Main Ingredients

December 3rd, 2011

If you are thinking of trying authentic Italian cooking at home, you need to know the common ingredients used in it. These are very important because the ingredients themselves are the main focus of Italian meals. This type of cuisine goes easy on the spices and the preparation. Instead, the aim is to bring out the flavors inherent in the main ingredients themselves. So try to get good quality ingredients.

Another point to remember while shopping for ingredients for Italian meals is that all ingredients must be fresh. Traditionally, Italian cuisine depends on seasonal vegetables. So, fresh produce is important…very important.

Pasta

This is probably the most widely used ingredient in Italian cooking. Mostly made from wheat, pasta comes in different shapes and sizes. Wheat high in gluten content is used to make pasta. Sometimes semolina is also used though traditionally it was made from potatoes.