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Culinary Terms

Culinary terms glossary, here you have a list of culinary terms that may help you when dealing with Italian food culture. Improve your food culture knowing the real meaning of most used Italian food terms, often used with a wrong meaning abroad.

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)
Crouton Small cubes of bread, usually re-baked or fried, commonly used to add flavour to salads or soups.
Frizzante sparkling white wine
Grana Padano typical cheese that comes from a specific region of Italy
Grappa distilled drink made of Italian grape skins
Maraschino It is a bittersweet, clear liqueur flavored with Marasca cherries, which are grown in Dalmatia, Croatia, and in Torreglia (near Padua in Northern Italy).source: Wikipedia
Mascarpone This Italian creamy cheese is typical from Lombardy region of Italy (northwest) and it is the main ingredient for the famous tiramisu cake recipe
Mortadella

typical Italian cold cut made from pork

Panna cotta Italian dessert made with cream
Pappardelle Pasta shape that looks like "ribbons". Usually cooked with a dense meat based sauce, such as ragu recipe
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
Vinaigrette French salad dressing made with 3 parts of olive oil and 1 part of good quality vinegar, beaten until becoming an emulsion; plus salt and pepper.
Vino novello young wine, drunk shortly after its production

 


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