Italian Cuisine.. An introduction

Italian Cuisine.

My first memories of Italian cuisine goes back almost 12- 15 years ago.My parents used to often take us to a restaurant in Shivaji park,our neighbourhood which served Italian food.Since then I had developed this taste for Italian food .Infact now I cant imagine a life without Italian food. In Mumbai,people refer to pizzas and Pastas as Italian food.Infact Italian food goes much much more ahead of Pizzas and pastas.

First and foremost traditional Italian food has to be cooked in extra virgin olive oil. Secondly it uses varieties of ingredients right from legumes,vegetables,poultry,game,red meat,fish and fruits. Italian cuisine also uses flour and wheat flour to form dough for making of bread,or pasta which is one of the most important element of Italian cooking and food. Various herbs too are used. It also includes large variety of milk and milk products primarily cheese and cream. Again in the beverage section,both coffee and wine are also very important. Lastly,the desserts are different and mind blowing Lets discuss each in brief

1)Olive oil: No italian food is complete without olive oil.Infact italian food wont taste authentic unless you cook in olive oil.A true italian food tasting wizard will know the moment he took the first bite,whether it is cooked in olive oil or not Olive oil falls in many catagoeries viz Extra-virgin olive oil ,Virgin olive oil,Pure olive oil,Olive oil,Olive-pomace oil etc( in the descending order of quality)

2)Ingredients: Italian food consists of all ingredients like legumes(peas,beans etc),Poultry,Meat,Vegetables(Bell peppers,Mushrooms,Olives,Asparagus) as well as Fish

3)Pasta: Pasta is ideally made of flour and cooked and served with the preparation as a part of it.Ideally there are 3000-4000 shapes of pastas including penne,spaghetti,fussililli,macroni etc Above explains the very few basic pastas

4)Herbs: Italians use many herbs basic being oregano,followe by basil,parsley,rosemary,thyme etc They put the typical flaour in the food.

5)Milk and Products: All Italian food is incomplete without cheese and cream

6)Breads: It includes both garlic bread and pizza breads

Garlic bread typically consists of bread topped with garlic and olive oil accompanied with pastas.Then comes Pizzas having origin in Italy,but now has become more of an international food

7)Coffee and Wine: Coffee as called cafe is a huge thing in Italy.

Caffè macchiato; ristrettocappuccino caffelatte café au lait, Latte macchiato.

Wine can be Rosso(Red) and Bianco(white)usually served as per the dish accompanying it

In our next post we shall discuss how are the foods served and related topics..

Till then Ciao!!

Ash