# Do you like Italian cuisine...?



## Musicaterina (Apr 5, 2020)

...and if yes, which meals do you like most?

I love the Italian cuisine really, and I like most pasta with different vegetables. Penne all' arabbiata (without pancetta, because I'm vegetarian) is my favourite meal, I think.


----------



## Highwayman (Jul 16, 2018)

I like Italian cuisine but I don't like polls all' ArtMusic.


----------



## Red Terror (Dec 10, 2018)

The mainland's cuisine is actually markedly different from the Italian American variation. I prefer the former as the latter can be quite heavy on the stomach.


----------



## HenryPenfold (Apr 29, 2018)

Musicaterina said:


> ...and if yes, which meals do you like most?
> 
> I love the Italian cuisine really, and I like most pasta with different vegetables. Penne all' arabbiata (without pancetta, because I'm vegetarian) is my favourite meal, I think.


Gnocchi is my comfort food and my mum makes the best in the world. It's a northern dish.


----------



## Chilham (Jun 18, 2020)

Linguine al Pesto for me. Just don't make it al dente. :lol:

Followed up with an affogato.


----------



## Flamme (Dec 30, 2012)

Pzza, lasagne, ice-cream mmm


----------



## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

My family is Sicilian, my grandparents, both sets, were born in Castelvetrano, and I grew up eating traditional Sicilian food. It is rare to find what I consider good Italian food at restaurants. I live out in the country but there is a pretty decent one about 30 miles away.

My favorite restaurant dish is Eggplant Parmigiana, but my favorite meal is one my mother made on St. Joseph's day (the Sicilian patron saint). It was a pasta sauce (suga) made with anchovies sauteed in olive oil and onions. Pour the sauce over Vermicelli (very fine spaghetti) and instead of grated cheese, homemade bread crumbs were sprinkled over it - just thinking about it makes my mouth water.


----------



## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Our almost next door neighbors have run an Italian ice cream Gelateria for many years, he is from Sardinia, she is Dutch. They have become good friends, and in addition to the ice cream, we're often invited into their home (and vice versa) to taste real Italian cooking. Delicious.

We have also spent many holidays in Italy, and especially in Tuscany, the restaurants are amazing.


----------



## progmatist (Apr 3, 2021)

Among my favorites is Italian Sausage Lasagna. Growing up, it was spaghetti.


----------



## HenryPenfold (Apr 29, 2018)

SanAntone said:


> My family is Sicilian, my grandparents were both born in Castelventrano, and I grew up eating traditional Sicilian food. It is rare to find what I consider good Italian food at restaurants. I live out in the country but there is a pretty decent one about 30 miles away.
> 
> My favorite restaurant dish is Eggplant Parmigiana, but my favorite meal is one my mother made on St. Joseph's day (the Sicilian patron saint). It was a pasta sauce (suga) made with anchovies sauteed in olive oil and onions. Pour the sauce over Vermicelli (very fine spaghetti) and instead of grated cheese, homemade bread crumbs were sprinkled over it - just thinking about it makes my mouth water.


My family on my mum's side is from Trieste and Venice in the north east, but I spent a year in Siracusa in 1982 as an English teacher after Uni. Never mind the lemons and all that - the fish is absolutely amazing! Even the humble fresh sardine is a dish to die for!


----------



## science (Oct 14, 2010)

One of the ten best food traditions in the world. Maybe the best in Europe.


----------



## Chilham (Jun 18, 2020)

science said:


> One of the ten best food traditions in the world. Maybe the best in Europe.


It comes out top in many surveys, including Rough Guide. For me, Japanese and Thai beat it, and I agree with you that it's Europe's best.


----------



## Red Terror (Dec 10, 2018)

Chilham said:


> It comes out top in many surveys, including Rough Guide. For me, Japanese and Thai beat it, and I agree with you that it's Europe's best.


Japanese is my favorite followed by Thai. Chinese food doesn't do so well in Italy due to quality of the national cuisine.


----------



## Chilham (Jun 18, 2020)

Red Terror said:


> Japanese is my favorite.....


The best meal I ever ate, at a lovely old Ryokan. The only disappointment being, on that occasion, there was no one there to enjoy it with me.





































The server, a lovely lady who I only remember as, "Mrs. K", had no English and I had no Japanese, but we got by. I'd eaten in Tokyo with clients so mostly knew the form of what I needed to cook and what I could eat. When this dish arrived, I had no idea, and our inability to communicate with each other finally frustrated her. She left and returned with a Smartphone. Gabling something into it she proudly held the phone out me as it stated, in a thick American accent, "Eggy custard with tomato". We laughed.










Sorry for the highjack. Back to pizza and pasta!


----------



## amfortas (Jun 15, 2011)

I voted "love it," thinking of the foot-long Subway Spicy Italian sandwich I ate half of for lunch today.

Now, after reading this thread, I'm so embarrassed, I don't know if I'll be able to eat the other half. 

But yeah, I probably will.


----------



## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Love me some eggplant or chicken parmesan. My mom's stepfather came from a huge Italian family (11kids) so we ate a lot of good Italian food in Brooklyn when I was growing up.


----------



## Haydn70 (Jan 8, 2017)

100% Italian descent here. Both grandfathers were born in Naples (grandmothers in USA) and all great-grandparents born in Italy. My mom was a great cook, but the funny thing is that when I was a kid I disliked Italian food. Well, I disliked anything with red meat sauce. Just about every Sunday we would have some Italian dish: macaroni (we NEVER called it pasta) with red meat sauce (Mom always started the sauce on Saturday), chicken cacciatore, veal and eggplant parmigiana, lasagna. If it were just macaroni we were having, the meat could be meatballs or braciola or a big hunk of pork that was browned in the saucepan before the sauce and tomato paste was added. 

My dad's preference was just macaroni. (He wasn’t crazy about lasagna because he didn’t like baked macaroni. He didn’t like chicken prepared in any fashion as from the ages of 6 to 13 his family had a chicken ranch in Naples and he ate enough chicken to last him a lifetime. So much for chicken cacciatore.) His favorite noodle was perciatelli also known as bucatini. Sometimes we had vermicelli or rigatoni or ziti. Whatever it was, I would eat it without enthusiasm. 

The only Italian dish I sort of liked was spaghetti in a red clam sauce which we would have occasionally for Friday night dinner. (Funny thing is mom never made spaghetti with red meat sauce.)

Oh yes, another dish I REALLY hated was spaghetti aglio e olio. That made an appearance in our Christmas Eve dinners (Feast of the Seven Fishes).

These days I love Italian food. Love, love, love it!

Mangia bene!!


----------



## Bwv 1080 (Dec 31, 2018)

Hmm, did not know Italy had its own cuisine, will have to try it sometime


----------



## Bwv 1080 (Dec 31, 2018)

This is the mecca for Italian food in the US


----------



## Flamme (Dec 30, 2012)

I ate my worst lasagne in Italy! In Florence. In a restaurant I was ''recommended'' by someone. But the ice cream in Lucca was out of this world!


----------



## Haydn70 (Jan 8, 2017)

Flamme said:


> I ate my worst lasagne in Italy! In Florence. In a restaurant I was ''recommended'' by someone. But the ice cream in Lucca was out of this world!


I was in Florence for the first time in November 2018. Just before the trip I told a good friend (whose food judgment I trust) that I was looking for a restaurant with great Bistecca alla Fiorentina. He recommended Il Sasso di Dante located in the Piazza delle Pallottole, just off the Piazza del Duomo. Yes, I know that alone should have sounded an alarm! But my buddy said it was great.

Anyway, it wasn't great. The bistecca tasted fine but it was the really thick bistecca I had heard about. The side dishes ranged from OK to not so OK. All in all, a big disappointment.

But, on the other hand, the gelato! Madonna mia, incredibilmente delizioso!


----------



## Flamme (Dec 30, 2012)

Haydn70 said:


> I was in Florence for the first time in November 2018. Just before the trip I told a good friend (whose food judgment I trust) that I was looking for a restaurant with great Bistecca alla Fiorentina. He recommended Il Sasso di Dante located in the Piazza delle Pallottole, just off the Piazza del Duomo*. Yes, I know that alone should have sounded an alarm!* But my buddy said it was great.
> 
> Anyway, it wasn't great. The bistecca tasted fine but it was the really thick bistecca I had heard about. The side dishes ranged from OK to not so OK. All in all, a big disappointment.
> 
> But, on the other hand, the gelato! Madonna mia, incredibilmente delizioso!


Why is that?

Your experience almost mirrors mine...I waited long for my dish and it was burned, you could feel it in your mouth...


----------



## Haydn70 (Jan 8, 2017)

Haydn70 said:


> I was in Florence for the first time in November 2018. Just before the trip I told a good friend (whose food judgment I trust) that I was looking for a restaurant with great Bistecca alla Fiorentina. He recommended Il Sasso di Dante located in the Piazza delle Pallottole, just off the Piazza del Duomo. Yes, I know that alone should have sounded an alarm! But my buddy said it was great.
> 
> Anyway, it wasn't great. The bistecca tasted fine but it was the really thick bistecca I had heard about. The side dishes ranged from OK to not so OK. All in all, a big disappointment.
> 
> But, on the other hand, the gelato! Madonna mia, incredibilmente delizioso!


That was supposed to read: The bistecca tasted fine but it* wasn't* the really thick bistecca I had heard about.

Why aren't these posts editable?


----------



## Haydn70 (Jan 8, 2017)

Flamme said:


> Why is that?
> 
> Your experience almost mirrors mine...I waited long for my dish and it was burned, you could feel it in your mouth...


Well, some folks think one should avoid the shops and eateries around Il Duomo as they can be considered "touristy". But I found all of them to be at least very good...except for Il Sasso di Dante!


----------



## Haydn70 (Jan 8, 2017)

Flamme said:


> Why is that?
> 
> Your experience almost mirrors mine...I waited long for my dish and it was burned, you could feel it in your mouth...


Do you remember the name of the restaurant?


----------



## Flamme (Dec 30, 2012)

But to be fair the worst ''pierogi'' which is the most famous polish dish I ate in krakow in Poland so...


----------



## Flamme (Dec 30, 2012)

Haydn70 said:


> Do you remember the name of the restaurant?


I dont but it was located pretty much in same area as yours...I actually didnt have time to look for a restaurant of my chosing and ths one sounded ''decent''...The beer was very fine but the dish...


----------



## Barbebleu (May 17, 2015)

We have some great Italian restaurants in Glasgow and also some pretty desperate ones. The trick is finding the great ones!

I make a pretty decent lasagne al forno and a pretty decent cannelloni at home.

I was in Rome in December 2019 and ate in four different restaurants. Only one of them was any way tolerable, the others, not cheap either, were borderline appalling.


----------



## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Barbebleu said:


> I was in Rome in December 2019 and ate in four different restaurants. Only one of them was any way tolerable, the others, not cheap either, were borderline appalling.


Go figure! Thankfully we have a couple of good Italian joints in my town. But my favorite restaurant closed up. It was called Casa Di Copani. They had great food and a lovely relaxed atmosphere.


----------



## progmatist (Apr 3, 2021)

Flamme said:


> I ate my worst lasagne in Italy! In Florence. In a restaurant I was ''recommended'' by someone. But the ice cream in Lucca was out of this world!


The worst lasagna I ever had was when British supermarket chain Tesco tried opening a chain in the US. Their fresh lasagna was bland, tasting like little more than tomatoes and pasta. Their store brand frozen lasagna was much better, for some strange reason.


----------



## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

In general, I found the best restaurants in Italy in smaller villages, and certainly not in the touristic places (especially Rome and Venice were subpar).


----------



## Chilham (Jun 18, 2020)

Art Rock said:


> In general, I found the best restaurants in Italy in smaller villages, and certainly not in the touristic places (especially Rome and Venice were subpar).


Twenty-plus years ago, my wife, an archaeologist, was excavating in Pompeii. At the end of her, "Dig", I drove out from the UK with our kids to bring her home. We visited Venice, then drove to Naples. In a motorway service station somewhere not far from Florence, the children and I stopped for lunch. We all shared a large plate of diced potatoes with lardons, onions and garlic.

My wife and I like to treat ourselves to a Michelin starred restaurant on our wedding anniversary each year. It's become a bit of a tradition. Few meals over the years have matched that plate of potatoes for flavour. Simple food, cooked well.


----------



## Conrad2 (Jan 24, 2021)

Art Rock said:


> In general, I found the best restaurants in Italy in smaller villages, and certainly not in the touristic places (especially Rome and Venice were subpar).


1+.

Although the following experience of mine doesn't relate to Italian cuisine as I haven't visited Italy yet, which I hope to redress at a later date, it does relate to Art Rock insight.

Back in the day, when I was working in Japan, I was on a due diligence trip to a relatively remote part, and our host took us to a udon restaurant, Gamou. It was in a small town, that was populated by rice paddys and houses, so in rural country. I order a bowl of udon with some toppings which came to close to ten usd. It was perhaps the best bowl of udon I have the fortune of tasting. Simple and pure. The noodles was chewy and the broth was very fragrant.

The restaurant became more famous in recent years, which I think is well deserved and hopefully they mantain the same home meal taste and atmosphere I experienced on that day.


----------



## Haydn70 (Jan 8, 2017)

I wrote about a my "mezzo mezzo" dining experience at _Il Sasso di Dante _in Florence. I just want to mention a great lunch experience in that city: All'Antico Vinaio. Incredible sandwiches! (Spelled All'Antico Vinaio on their website, All'antico Vinaio on their signage.









https://www.allanticovinaio.com/


----------



## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

I love Italian cuisine but these days I like to eat gluten-free pasta as it suits my digestion better. I like Indian and Chinese dishes better, maybe because they're based on rice, which I adore.


----------



## HenryPenfold (Apr 29, 2018)

Barbebleu said:


> The trick is finding the great ones!


Is this just a 'domestic' trick for Glasgow, or can it be applied when abroad?



> I was in Rome in December 2019 and ate in four different restaurants. Only one of them was any way tolerable, the others, not cheap either, were borderline appalling.


I've had some of my most enjoyable Italian food in Rome. When in Rome ...............


----------



## mikeh375 (Sep 7, 2017)

We love Italian food in our house. My wife, being the excellent bread maker she is has perfected a sourdough thin pizza base which is gorgeous. Dunno if it's true Italian mind, but once its been loaded with a tomato base, 2 cheeses, chillies, onions and herbs from the garden...bel cibo. No Chicago Pizza in our household.

I've also developed a 'spag bol' from my student days which may not be authentic but we like it all the same.


----------



## Ariasexta (Jul 3, 2010)

I am a porkman, any culture which has some wisdom in cooking and preparing pork is among my favorite cuisines.


----------



## Chilham (Jun 18, 2020)

mikeh375 said:


> ... I've also developed a 'spag bol' from my student days which may not be authentic but we like it all the same.


My, "Dad's-Speesh-Spag-Bog", has become a dish of legend in our family. Learned as a 21-year old sharing a flat in Tulsa Hill, and slowly developed and perfected over the years. More recently it's been surpassed in popularity by my wife's seafood linguine (which is outstanding), but I still occasionally break out the old favourite.


----------



## mikeh375 (Sep 7, 2017)

Chilham said:


> My, "Dad's-Speesh-Spag-Bog", has become a dish of legend in our family. Learned as a 21-year old sharing a flat in Tulsa Hill, and slowly developed and perfected over the years. More recently it's been surpassed in popularity by my wife's seafood linguine (which is outstanding), but I still occasionally break out the old favourite.


Small world, our digs where in Dulwich. Me and my flatmate where so skint one time, we even put some lemon rind into the dish...it was bloody awful.


----------



## MrNobody (Jun 9, 2021)

Any potato pizza recipe? I saw one once, looked interesting


----------



## Chilham (Jun 18, 2020)

MrNobody said:


> Any potato pizza recipe? I saw one once, looked interesting


Anyone for Frogs Legs pizza?


----------

