#2: Italy

💚Ciao dear friends! Today we will illustrate my favorite gastronomy...Italian💘, but I must warn you that the Italians have a little demand in terms of their star dishes, you will see because I tell you. First of all, we can talk about what many already know but we like to highlight about Italian recipes such as pasta and pizza have been representatives of Italy around the world for centuries, but of course in this country there are many more things that would like to receive more recognition only that they have a lot of competition in the market.

🍷One of the products that Italy wants to have more recognition is in its wines, since these have a small peculiarity that may not convince all the wine lover. You see, Italian wine is well known for being very fruity, which means that it is classified as sweet.

🍇Here is a small lesson in oenology that is the study of winemaking: When a wine is sweeter it means that it has more degrees of alcohol, this is because in the fermentation of wine sugar and fructose are transformed into alcohol by the yeasts that contain the liquid. 

We can say that Italians generally like strong wines. This I suppose is not so appreciated by many since Italy competes with France that has greater recognition in wine quality. Experts determined that none is better than another since their circumstances in terms of various factors such as terrain and climate made them very different.  

It would be impertinent to assume that French wine is better than Italian wine or vice versa. After all, these two wine-producing countries have different winemaking styles and traditions. Both countries produce high-quality wines, and it comes down to personal preference. (Crune-vine, 2023, pa8)

So, like everything in most cases the palate of each person is the determinant of which is better for their personal taste.

🏆Italy has many more disputes with its neighboring countries about who does a certain thing better. The natives of the boot-shaped country are quite competitive, this makes Italians people who follow their very well-preserved traditions, and we will talk about that below.

We will talk about two classics...

🍕The first will be the pizza; most of us have learned that the creators of such a delicious dish have a very specific and one could even say closed way of how it should be prepared. Since the dough should go through several stages of yeast until you can't put things like pineapple in it. Never play with food near an Italian, especially if it is from their own region, please! 😐

🍕On the other hand, if you truly want to respect and learn about authentic pizza, I suggest you practice with Neapolitan pizza. The Neapolitans are cataloged as the owners and creators of pizza and when several of them emigrated to other countries they taught that there are three types of Neapolitan pizza that are what we know as the authentic Italian ones: Marinara, Margherita and Margherita Extra. The picture above is a Margherita pizza. 😋

🍅Marinara is basically the base of the pizza with Neapolitan sauce and basil leaves, the Margherita has its base with sauce, fresh mozzarella cheese and basil leaves, and the Margherita Extra is almost the same as the Margherita only it has a type of cheese called burrata. If you want more information about this type of pizzas exist a website called Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana where authentic pizzaiolos explain more detailly the full process.

🍝And the other classic that we are going to comment on is pasta. Oh readers, what can I say about the controversial pasta, I'm going to try to summarize the mistakes that are always made but we don't believe they are wrong until an Italian almost takes our heads off. Let's see, break the dry pasta for put it into the pot when cooking it😬 (this is the worse!), add oil to the cooking water, use butter instead of olive oil when preparing the sauce, go over the cooking point and I could continue. Although the fussiest is when you affirm that all forms of pasta are called the same. I didn't know this, but many types of pasta shapes were created that have their own name. If you are a foreigner, I don't think you will care about this, but in the land of homemade tomato sauce this has its purpose and that is that each type of pasta is used with a certain sauce and complements that make it special. The truth is that with pasta they are not so demanding if you choose a type of pasta and add another sauce that is not originally of them ones, but anyway everything is tradition from each region of the country.

As we can appreciate the culinary art of this country is not very healthy for its fascination with carbohydrates but a beautiful chef half Italian half American has been making Italian food part of a healthy life for several years.

I have a chapter on pasta, but I’ve changed a few things so the dishes won’t sit heavily in your stomach the way so many cheesy, creamy, ultra-rich pastas can. None of the pasta recipes put animal products at the center, just small amounts of dairy, chicken broth, or eggs used to add body and richness. I suggest substituting gluten-free pasta if your body doesn’t do well with gluten and also eating a smaller portion size, so you can still enjoy a delicious pasta dish, but not feel bad afterward. (Laurentiis, 2021, pa 6)

The traditional is excellent but we can all make it ideal for everyone. The same needs to be addressed in many households. ☝

Tomatoes, mozzarella, basil, dough, olive oil... Each one in a fresh form are a harmony of perfect flavors. My 10 golden spoons are irrefutable.

🍴Recipe: Pesto sauce for pasta🍵🍝 Yield: 1 cup

• 1/2 cup of pine nuts, but if you can't find or buy them, you can use pistachios or sunflower seeds.
• 2 garlic cloves
• 2 cups of basil leaves (generally are a big bunch)
• 3/4 cup of extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/2 or 1 cup of parmesan cheese. 
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt just take care because parmesan cheese is salty enough.

In a pan or in the oven you can toast the pine nuts or their substitutions slightly, don't burn them.

Now if you have a processor, firstly you can shred the pine nuts, then add the garlic cloves and the olive oil until form a homogeneous mixture, then add the basil leaves gradually in 10-second intervals, and if you want it, add the parmesan cheese in the same form.

In the case that you don't have a processor you can follow the same order, but you just need to chop very finely and incorporate everything very well.

Test if need salt or not and enjoy! 😋 I think you can follow the instructions of a pasta package for mix the pesto. 💚

Thanks for reading😀 See you in the next craving🍴👋

References

Crune Vine (2023) French vs. Italian Wine: Their Main Differences Explained

French vs. Italian Wine: Their Main Differences Explained (cru-wine.com)

La cucina italiana (2021) Better Everyday – An Interview With Giada De Laurentiis

Better Everyday – An Interview With Giada De Laurentiis - La Cucina Italiana