Welcome to our three part beginner’s guide to authentic Italian food! Here’s what you’ll find here: Part I: The Varieties of Italian Cooking This post walks you through the principal types of Italian cooking. Everything from true Italian food, the kind they make in Italy, to Italian Diaspora cooking, which … Read More
Homemade Mayonnaise, the Italian Way
Mayonnaise may have been invented by the Spanish and popularized by the French, but Italians make maionese, too. The Italian method for homemade mayonnaise is not very different from elsewhere, but, not surprisingly, you make it either partially or entirely with olive oil (like the original Spanish version). And it’s very basic, … Read More
Tomato Sauce 101
I’m all for convenience when it actually makes life simpler. But it’s always been a mystery to me why people buy those jars of wretched “spaghetti sauce” that line our supermarket shelves, when you can make real tomato sauce with only a tiny bit more time and effort. I … Read More
Pane casereccio (Homemade Bread)
I am not a baker. Never have been. I have always found stove-top cooking fun and easy but baking is a very different art. Cooking lets you stir and taste and adjust as you go along to get things to come out just right. But with baking—once you close that … Read More
How to Dress a Salad “all’italiana”
The proper dressing of a salad has got to be one of the most overlooked techniques in all of cookery. For many people, a salad is something so common that it hardly merits thinking about. But there is actually a kind of art to this everyday task that can really transform … Read More
Part III: How to Cook Authentic Italian Food At Home
Well, now that you know all about the varieties of Italian cooking and how to tell real Italian cooking from the fake, you may want to take your knowledge to the next level: making authentic Italian food at home. The good news is, it is really very easy to do. … Read More
Part II: Learning to Recognize Real Italian Food
In Part I of this series, we explored the varieties of cooking styles that call themselves Italian, some rightly, some wrongly. As you will have realized from reading that post, there is a lot of fake Italian food out there, nowhere more so than right here on the internet. Since so … Read More
Part I: Varieties of Italian Cooking
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. … Read More