Culinary terms
Culinary terms glossary, here you have a list of culinary terms that may help you when dealing with Italian food culture.
It is like a small Italian food dictionary, that is often enriched with your requests (send a request through our contact page.
Click on the word if you want to know more about it.
amaretto candies made with sweet and bitter almonds. There was an Italian almond loquor named amaretto that has undergone a name change, but one can still ask for this drink. ammazza caffè Alcoholic beverages (mainly liqueurs) used after a meal as a digestive drink antipasto the first dish of a meal, usually cold cuts, olives or seafood salad aperitivo aperitif drunk mainly by Italians daily before lunch bresaola Italian cold cut made with veal (calf meat) cornetto most common pastry used for Italian breakfast. (French croissant) frizzante sparkling white wine Grana Padano typical cheese that comes from a specific region of Italy Grappa distilled drink made of Italian grape skins mortadella typical Italian cold cut made from pork
panna cotta Italian dessert made with cream Parma Italian city and name of a raw ham producing consortium Parmigiano Reggiano typical cheese that can be produced ONLY in a specified Italian region pasta can refer to pasta cooked for a main meal, or pastry commonly served as an Italian breakfast
peperone vegetable often used in Italian cuisine which can be red, yellow or green prosciutto cotto cooked ham, commonly used for toasted sandwiches and pizza prosciutto crudo raw ham ragu Italian sauce made with ground meat and requiring long cooking time salame Italian cold cut made from pork
salsiccia pork sausage sorbetto a light ice-cream made from only fruit and water, sometimes served between a fish and a meat dish
speck smoked raw ham spumante sparkling wine sugo typical italian tomato sauce tiramisu means "pull me up", typical Italian dessert with mascarpone cheese and coffee vino novello young wine, drunk shortly after its production
