I sometimes feel sorry for Italians. While they are not generally a nationalistic people—Mussolini cured most of them of that affliction—they can be downright chauvinistic when it comes to their food. That’s perfectly understandable as far as I’m concerned, as Italians have given the world one of its great cuisines. And yet there may no be no other world cuisine—except, perhaps for the Chinese—that has been so victimized by careless and inauthentic imitation. And even if they say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, I have found that nothing upsets Italians quite as much as the theft and bastardization of their culinary heritage.
Some of you may be wondering: what exactly do I mean when we talk about ‘authentic’ Italian cooking? The question would never even occur, I don’t think, to most native Italians. Notions of authenticity or, as the Italians are apt to call it, genuinità, have cult-like status in Italy. The notion may be hard to define precisely but, to paraphrase Justice Stewart, they know it when they taste it. Some people may find the concept hard to understand or even difficult to accept, so let me try to explain as best I can—and perhaps others will want to chime in.
A good place to start, it seems to me, is by identifying what we mean when we talk about Italian cooking. After some thought about the subject, I have identified a number of distinct types of cooking that, rightly or wrongly, go by the name ‘Italian’:
The cuisine of Italy
We start with the obvious: Italian food is the food they make in the country called Italy. But even this basic concept has its complications and nuance. The argument can even be made that there is no such thing as ‘Italian’ cuisine as such, but rather that the phenomenon that we call Italian cuisine is, in reality, a collection of regional cuisines. And if you compare, say, the cooking of Lombardy with the cooking of Puglia, you might wonder whether that isn’t right. Italian food is still, almost 150 years after the Risorgimento, highly regional.
But despite this undeniable fact, I think that one can talk today about a single Italian cuisine. Many dishes that used to be eaten only in a particular town or region are now enjoyed all over Italy, even if they are still at their best on their native turf. Think of pizza, a speciality of Naples, which is now eaten everywhere in Italy (and, of course, beyond—but we’ll get to that in a moment). The same can be said of pesto alla genovese or bistecca alla fiorentina, spaghetti alla carbonara or risotto alla milanese.
All these dishes still strongly identified with their place of origin, but they have entered into the national and, in many cases, international culinary culture. And then there are a whole class of dishes that really do not have—or no longer have—strong regional connections. Take, for example, branzino al sale. The dish is Italian, and it surely has its origins somewhere in Italy, but today it can be convincingly called ‘Italian’ rather than Neapolitan or Ligurian or whatever.
Foreign influences
Of course, Italian food has been evolving over time. The cuisine of the Peninsula that we know today has been heavily influenced by “foreigners”. First by the barbaric tribes that invaded in late antiquity, bringing such previously snubbed foodstuff as game to the Italian table. Then by the Saracens, who brought eggplant, couscous, ice cream and (probably) rice, and, then perhaps most importantly, by the discovery of the New World and its native foodstuffs. What would Italian cooking be today without the tomato, corn, beans and peppers, to name just a few of these New World imports?
Italian cuisine continues to evolve in modern times. Some of the most ‘classic’ Italian dishes, like carbonara, are actually relatively new. And even today we are seeing significant changes to the Italian diet. As elsewhere, but certainly to a lesser extent than in other developed countries, convenience foods like the Quattro salti in padella lineof frozen foods are making inroads into traditional ways of preparing food. Italians are eating lighter, shunning old cooking fats like lard in favor of the ever-present olive oil, even in regions where olive oil was not traditional.
And although Italians are notoriously reticent when it comes to foreign foods, if take a look at the latest issues of La cucina italiana you will find dishes made with such formerly ‘exotic’ ingredients as tandoori pork and black beans. At the same time, you see today a reaction to modernity and a longing for a return to the rustic indigenous roots of Italian cooking. The Slow Food movement is perhaps the most visible manifestation of this atavistic longing. Through it all, however, I firmly believe that an ineffable quality, a common ‘feeling’, has maintained Italian cookery as recognizably ‘Italian’.
Italian Diaspora cooking
As we all know, in the 19th and early 20th century, there was massive emigration out of Italy, mostly to the Americas (in particular the US, Canada, Argentina, Uruguay and Venezuela) as well as to Australia. These immigrants took their culinary culture with them and, at least at first, they rather stubbornly stuck to their gastronomic ways. Of course, circumstances obliged them to make some changes and adaptations. Where native ingredients were not available, like the Chinese, they adapted their recipes to fit the ingredients they could find in their new homelands, finding substitutes for the ingredients they could not find. My grandmother, for example, would make aglio e olio—a pasta dish usually made olive oil, garlic and the small dried red pepper called peperoncino—with black pepper when she couldn’t find the red.
At the same time, these immigrants began to cook with ingredients—in particular, meat—that were rare treats back home. One of the hallmarks of Italian-American cooking is the pride of place given to meat, even using it in traditionally vegetarian dishes. The transformation of parmigiana di melanzane into ‘veal parmesan’ (nowadays increasingly supplanted by ‘Chicken Parm’) is a classic example.
Another interesting feature of Diaspora cooking is its mixing of influences from different regions of Italy. It was one of the original ‘fusion’ cuisines. Italian immigrants from different parts of Italy all lived in close quarters in Little Italy’s all over the world and shared their culinary heritages. A famous contemporary example here in the US is Lidia Bastianich, who is from Istria (now part of Croatia) but whose cooking—which features lots of hot pepper—shows the clear influence of the southern Italian majority among Italian-Americans.
Italian-American cookery
Italian-American cooking has given us some excellent eating. Think of San Francisco’s cioppino or New Orleans’ muffaletta sandwich, or the tasty Lobster Fra Diavolo. At its best, it is a cuisine that has an authenticity all its own. The spirit of this kind of Italian-American cooking does live on. But as the generations pass, Diapora cooking has entered into a new phase.
The descendants of the original immigrants began to abandon—or simply forget—their traditions and adopt the culinary habits of their new country. The cooking of many of today’s Italian-Americans has largely lost touch with its origins. Dubious ingredients like garlic powder show up regularly in so-called ‘Italian’ recipes. The sons and daughters of Italy have too often abandoned the traditions of Italian culinary culture, which were not just arbitrary ‘rules’ but reflections its core aesthetic: grated cheese on fish, spaghetti served as a ‘side dish’, cappuccino served after dinner and a thousand other heresies are commonplace among today’s generation of Italian-Americans. All of which brings me to our next category…
Italian-‘style’ cooking
The global popularity of Italian cuisine has inspired a lot of imitation, much of it awful. Third and fourth generation descendants of Italian immigrants, as well as people with no connection at all to Italy or its culinary culture, have invented a whole new category of dishes that call themselves Italian-style or just ‘Italian’ but have little or nothing to do with actual Italian culinary traditions. These are dishes that essentially belong to the traditions of the respective countries of origin. Add a bit of tomato or oregano to a dish, top it with some melted imitation mozzarella cheese, and voilà, it’s magically ‘Neapolitan’ or ‘Tuscan’ or ‘Italian’!
Imitation, or Just Plain Bad, Italian cooking
Here we find recipes that ‘adapt’ real Italian dishes to local tastes, never (at least in my experience) for the better. Spaghetti alla carbonara, for example, made with cream, cooked ham and peas… You could also call this ‘Italian style’ cooking, but in this case we are talking about dishes that exist in their original form but suffer bastardization, sometimes beyond recognition.
A Return to Authenticity?
At the same time as Italian food has been beset internationally by the abandonment of traditions and poor imitations, a counter-trend—modest, perhaps, but noticeable—has been gathering steam. As in Italy itself, some of today’s descendants of the original Italian Diaspora are looking to recapture the tastes and sensibilities that their forbearers brought with them, to rediscover their ‘roots’ as the old saw goes. In many ways, it has never been easier to try to do that. More than ever, Italian foodstuffs are being exported around the world. You can find them at high-end stores like Eataly in places like New York and Tokyo, but also in countless more modest establishments. And information about what real Italian cooking is available to just about anyone who cares to look for it. (More about that later.)
The bottom line
So which of these styles of cooking represent authentic Italian cuisine? When I talk about authentic Italian food, what I mean is food that respects the essential aesthetic of Italian cooking. For the most part, that means the cooking of Italy itself. Italian-American and other Italian Diaspora cooking deserve respect on their own terms, but increasingly they have departed from that essential aesthetic. And as far as ‘Italian-style’ and imitation Italian cooking are concerned, the less said the better.
Yet its worldwide popularity has made authentic Italian cooking easier than ever to replicate outside its native turf. And, yes, you can find authentic Italian cooking outside Italy. So how can you tell the real thing from imitations? Check out Part II of this series…
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39 Comments on “Part I: Varieties of Italian Cooking”
I enjoyed this blog immensely and learned much. My grandparents emigrated from the Campagnia region and I watched my grandmother make the Sunday ravioli by the dozens and dry them on her bed. It was so much fun. Watching my mother, I learned to make decent Italian food. I find that many of the “Italian Food” sites have a lot to say about the authenticity of the food, as you said. Love your recipes and the new format. Keep them coming.
Thanks so much, Diane!
PS: And my grandmother also used her bed to dry pasta, by the way… 🙂
I must admit that I was conflicted when I read your introduction. I do think there’s an important place for the authentic and genuine recipes that make up Italian cuisine. I also think there’s room for creativity. What I would prefer is that when people tweak recipes, such as carbonara or salsa Bolognese (using cream in carbonara, or adding 8 cloves of garlic to bolognese), that they change the name of the recipe when they change it. I don’t see anything wrong with the creativity, but for those of us who rely on authenticity, i prefer my authentic Italian recipes authentic. Is it snobbism? Possibly. But for someone who has a specific allergy, I like to be able to go anywhere in Italy and know that what I order follows the culinary rules.
I feel just the same, David. It’s a complicated topic and anyone who defends authenticity or tradition is often labeled as “elitist” in particular in the US. I see a difference between being creative (which can be a good thing) and mindlessly playing around with traditional recipes, which, besides being rather inauthentic, rarely leads to anything worth eating. But at the least these people should change the name and not claim what they’re doing is in any way, shape or form “Italian”!
I was about a paragraph in and while I enjoy the take on Italian food but being Canadian I saw where this was going, again. Left out as far as the Italian diaspora and yet a very large migrant population in Toronto, southern Ontario,Vancouver, and Montreal. I do realize it is an American blog, but ya know…
Thanks, Frank. Well, I left a lot of countries off the short list where I mention where the largest diaspora communities are and focus on the Italian-American cookery since it’s the only one I really know well. But you make a good point. I’m well aware of the Italian Canadian community since one of my good friends back in Rome was an Italian Canadian from Montreal. I’ve added a mention of Canada to the list!
Thank you so much for the history of Italian cooking and the wonderful recipes you provide so often. I am an Irishman who loves to cook and have made many of the recipes that you posted. I love to cook all types of food from around the world except Ireland, we all know the Irish can’t cook. I, on the other hand enjoy preparing the recipes you post and my family loves them. French Italian and Cuban are my favorites. Thanks again and “Good Eating” Dan Breen.
Thanks for your message, Dan! And for your readership. I’m delighted you and your family are enjoying and using the blog!
Found this recipe online for you, Frank, for focaccia made with mashed potato.
https://honestcooking.com/bari-focaccia/.
Thanks, Jackie! Definitely going to check this one out.
Frank – thank you ! I am and will be thrilled to read these posts and learn from them and be able to thrill many friends methinks by repisting your work. As in most parts of the world Italian cuisine is one of the most popular here outside local cookery. Being as hugely multicultural nation as we are especially currently there is widespread awareness in presenting it correctly – we very much talk about the variances coming from the north and the south and oft these days a dish is introduced by its region and even town. The power of the nonnas is strong 🙂 ! At any time there never seem to be fewer than 3-4 Italian cookery series by Italians on television ! Your writings will so add to what we know . . .
Thanks so much for the kinds words, Eha. I’m glad to hear that the nonnas are still going strong in Australia!
Thank you Frank for your posts PLEASE keep writing! My dear sweet Mother-in-law taught me to cook Tuscan style. My In-laws were both from Tuscan area Italy and when I married my husband (59 yrs ago) we lived with his parents for 15 months. Boy, did I learn to cook tasty and delicious “Italian” meals (Imagine: an Irish bride)…My 4 children and 18 grandchildren benefit from their grandma/great grandma’s (Nonna’s) talent. I am trying to write out the recipes for them that I remember (I am 80 yrs old) at their request…Blessings on all!
Sounds like you learned to cook the old fashioned way, Jeanette! Seems very few people today were lucky enough to be taught to cook like that, so I’m hoping my blog could be the next best thing… And please do write out those recipes for the sake of your children and grandchildren. They’d be forever grateful, I’m sure.
Really outstanding post! One of the most interesting things about Italian cuisine is its how similar dishes vary significantly from region to region. Nice primer — thanks.
Thanks, John! And so true about the regional variations. One of the things that make Italian food so endlessly fascinating.
I love this site Frank! My father was from Calabria and my mother was born in US. Her parents are both from Italy. Most of the family recipes are Calabrian. My parents both died while I was in my twenties but I’ve tried to replicate the dishes.
Thanks so much, Janet! You know I’ve been meaning to feature more Calabrian dishes on the blog. It’s a fascinating cuisine, one of the few in Italy that puts a real emphasis on spiciness. Have you checked out the YouTube channel Sfizi di Calabria? It’s a lot of fun. Not to mention of course, Rosetta Costantino. She does a wonderful job presenting Calabrian food (in English).
My parents were born in Puglia, near Bari, so I grew up with the foods of cucuna povera, a mostly plant-based diet. My father foraged funghi and cime di rape. Rigatoni with mustard greens, broccoli or cauliflower simply tossed with olive oil and pepper was a weekday staple. Pasta with gravy on Thursday, fish on Friday (calamari ripieni, baccala, a baked whote fish with cherry tomatoes), grilled beef over grape stump coals on Saturday and a roast or chicken and/or some pasta with a side of braciole and stew meat for lunch after church on Sunday. Butter was only used in cookies; olive oil for everything else. My mom made a thick focaccia with mashed potatoes as an ingredient and topped with cherry tomatoes and oregano…”u cuch…pronounced coook” and it was common for me to come home from school and find a sheet covering my bed with taralli (tad-dads) drying out before they were baked..
Unfortunately, my mother and grandmother never taught me to cook because I was meant to be a “school girl.” Recipes were never written down. Even worse, I was diagnosed with celiac disease and trying to imitate my mom’s wonderful cooking without semolina and regular wheat flour just isn’t the same.
Grazie mille for your informative blog. Looking forward to more.
Thanks so much for the kinds words and for sharing your story, Jackie. Those dishes you grew up with some delicious! Now some I know well. I still eat pasta with mustard greens or cauliflower all the time. Others, like the focaccia with mashed potato, I don’t know but sound intriguing! I’ll need to look into that. Too bad about the celiac… but I understand that there are some decent gluten free options for pasta and other staples, although I haven’t looked into it. Thanks again for your comment and your readership. So glad you’re enjoying the blog!
I am Italian and I like cooking. I have just started my blog a few months ago to give a taste of Italian lyfestile and culture through cooking. I proposed authentic Italian recipes that my granmother and my mon prepared. I do really enjoyed the message of your post and I agree on what you wrote. Congratulations on your blog! Paola
Many thanks, Paola! I look forward to checking out your blog.
My maternal grandmother was from Abruzzo and married my Calabrese grandfather. She died at 45 from cancer and during her final months, she made sure to teach my mother and her 2 sisters how to cook “Calabrese” to make sure that my grandfather was taken care of in a culinary way. My mother always made the distinction between the recipes that were Abruzzese and the ones that were Calabrese when we were growing up. There was certainly a difference…….Great blog…..Thanks for the research and the sentiments….
Thanks so much, Anthony! Very true, Calabrese cooking is very different. It’s known on Italy for its spiciness, which is not all that common among Italian regional cuisines. And the Abruzzesi are known to be great cooks. Both are heritages to have!
Well you sure do learn something new everyday don’t you. For sure have heard that various parts of Italy offer different cuisine choices, which probably goes for all over the world, doesn’t it.
We have Italian friends, and when they invite you for dinner, you sure always go, there just isn’t any better food around I don’t think.
Good post today, enjoyed the knowledge.
There are ITALIAN's and there are
want a be's, who do not understand
ITALIAN cooking. They should stick
to their fast foods in freezer
cabinets or joints.
I'm a real ITALIAN and tired of all
these Italian style recipes adding
alittle of this and a little of
that does not make it ITALIAN.
Enjoyed this very much, and looking forward to more. I do not know real Italian cooking well, and want to learn more. I'm also on CES, PA Dutch Cooking…Jann
@Dajana: By the way, I totally agree about pizza in Naples (and the espresso, too!) but have to say, after living in Rome for so many years, I grew to really like Roman-style 'pizza bassa'… to the point that I came to like it better. It's all a matter of what you're use to, I suppose. But like Italian cooking in general, to really understand and appreciate the variations you need to know the original.
@Lucia: As I mention in Part II of this series, La Cucina is an excellent resource. Cooking from that book you will learn a lot about authentic Italian cookery. My only gripe with it is that they have not included the original Italian names so I sometimes have to read through the entire recipe before I can figure out what dish it is they are talking about!
@elle pee: What a story about that discussion group! Jeez, there is nothing more infuriating, or frustrating, than willful ignorance. It is one thing not to know but to be open to learning. Quite another to be so ignorant you think you aren't…
@Kate@diethood.com: I think you've put your finger on it. The need/desire to 'sell' Italian food (ie, make money) accounts for a lot of the problem.
@Winelady Cooks: I'm afraid you're not alone. I've seen so many Italian-American families where traditions have been lost just because Nana or Mom never passed along their knowledge. It's so common you have to wonder why. Did they simply think that their American daughters (or sons) would simply not be interested? But whatever the reason it's a real shame. Still, there are ways to recuperate that tradition–check out Parts II and III!
@Drick: Knowing the difference is the key. Nothing wrong with Italian-American cookery (heck, I'm Italian-American myself!) if it's done well and presented as such, not pretending to be Italian-Italian.
@susanna: How lucky you were to have that experience! I am particularly fond of Tuscan food. Even if it's not my background (my family hails from Campania and Puglia, and I lived in Rome) Tuscan cooking might just be my favorite regional cooking. I love its clean flavors and straightforward cooking techniques.
I am so glad that you are writing this blog. I have had so much trouble going out for Italian food. Pasta overcooked, too much sauce, horrible bread, etc. I was raised by a Toscana mother. We never ate “Italian food”, she cooked everyday and we ate whatever she gave us! It was all good. We spent quite a bit of time in Pisa with her sisters, mostly in the kitchen laughing and cooking. I also lived in Rome for two years and had to learn a whole new way of cooking, of spices, of seasonal offerings, cheeses and so on. Whenever I travel in Italy I learn to eat locally, whatever is the dish of the day or whatever looks good at the table next to me. This variety makes Italy so much fun to travel in, so exciting to try different foods. Thanks again for caring enough to write.
Thanks, folks, for all the kind comments and your support! Who knows, we may start a small revolution yet…
great post I love italian food and enjoy trying new recipes
very enjoyable read, and I know that while I may never cook real Italian, I can proudly say I appreciate knowing there is a difference, all I have to do now is wait until tomorrow, huh….
Terrific post and great information. I'm saddened by the fact that my grandmothers and mother have passed and did not leave any written recipes. I can only create the dishes I remember having during childhood. My sister is the only reference for me and she's not always on the same page since she was a very picky eater.
What stands out for me is that our meals were always made with fresh ingredients and we always had fresh fish. My grandfather was a fishmonger.
I look forward to reading your next post and hope to find some dishes that take me back.
Thanks for sharing,
Joanne
Great post!
Italian food in the States and Italian food in Italy, well, it doesn't compare. I love authentic Italian! But food has to appeal to the masses and if you want to sell it in the States, you have to Americanize it. 🙂
Excellent analysis! I didn't know that the “Chicken Parm” came from the Parmigiana but I know in my DNA that an Italian would never serve a chicken breast on top of spaghetti with melted cheese. Ever.
Nor would they ever add sausage, chicken, beef or meat to their risotto (pancetta and seafood being the only exceptions to this rule).
I try to do my part in educating others about Italian cuisine – I was thrown out of a cooking forum for suggesting that there is no “pizza sauce” in Italy.
In case anyone was wondering: It's puree'd tomatoes. Period.
Another lady practically had a breakdown when I told her you should not add garlic to an authentic Ragu Bolognese – the long cooking renders it bitter.
Glad not to be a part of a group of people who are too snobby to listen to an Italian on the subject of Italian cooking!
Right now, Italy is trying to clamp down on imitation products like “Parmesan stlye” cheese from Wisconsin and “Italian Salad Dressing” from Kraft. Unfortunately, the damage has been done.
So glad to have you, Frank, and your blog as ambassadors of Classic, Authentic, Italian cuisine!
Ciao,
L
hip pressure cooking
making pressure cooking hip, one recipe at a time!
(Italian cuisine, faster!)
Loved reading this. I received La Cucina: The Regional Cooking of Italy for Christmas last year and was amazed that with so few ingredients the food was so flavorful.
My grandparents were born in Italy and moved hear in the early 1900's. I have never been to Italy but an hungry (no pun intended) to cook like my grandmother's mother cooked. Simple food with simple ingredients.
Sorry to run on but I really enjoyed reading this…
Very interesting post… Italy is so close to Spain and yet we know so little…
A very nice article. I've only started understanding what Italian cuisine is all about after I moved to Italy. Now I just smile or even laugh when I see certain dishes labeled as Italian, or when I see a pasta dish or a risotto served simply as a side dish, or accompanied by a salad. That has so little to do with the Italian way of eating and cooking.
But the things, as you said, are not always so clear in Italy either. If one has never tried a pizza in Naples s/he will never know what an authentic pizza is, definitely not the pizza you can find in any other part of Italy.
And it's enough sometimes to see discussions that often develop on cooking sites, when for example such a classical dish as Melanzane alla parmigiana is published, everyone claims that the way s/he prepares it is the only authentic way.
I can't wait for tomorrow's post, Frank! This is a topic I think about when I cook and blog. I try to be careful when I label a dish Italian. There are many “Italian-style”, or American/Italian recipes that my family and I enjoy, but I would not label them as an Italian recipe. I always learn a lot from your blog!