Italian food dishes
Italian food dishes, the most famous Italian foods and how Italians eat and prepare their Mediteranian diet foods for a daily meal or for a special occasion.
Which are the Italian dishes eaten every day by Italians?
The whole world talks about the wonders of this cuisine, and it is thought that Italians eat lasagna for lunch every day.They do not. Lasagna, ravioli and tiramisu are special dishes that are usually cooked for Sunday lunches, holidays or special occasions.
The Italian diet often includes pasta or risotto, but pasta is the most common first dish (click here to find out about the most popular Italian foods).
The basis of Italian food dishes is pasta. The most common one is pasta with tomato sauce and there are some Italians that cannot have lunch without a dish of pasta. It's not folklore, it's reality.
Some Italians are addicted to tomato sauce with their pasta, but it can be varied in many ways. Basic pasta dishes provide an infinite field for fantasy, as pasta "accepts" a lot of matches. The second dish is less typical, in the sense that it can vary more than the first. Most people eat red meat, followed by chicken and to a lesser degree, fish.
Italians cook meat in a very simple way, often just grilled. Italian cuisine does not lend itself to creams, sauces and other ingredients.
A traditional meat dish is polpettone. It is a unique meatball dish (you can always prepare individual ones) that can become a single dish if you add mozzarella, tomato sauce and pasta with butter.
In Italy, fish is often served, other than grilled, in three different and interesting ways:
•fried seafood - you can have a mix including fish, or only squid (calamari).•"al sale" (with salt). The fish (whole fish, does not apply to pieces) is completely covered with salt and put into the oven. When it's done, the salt will form a crust and the fish will be perfectly moist and tasty.
•"alla vernaccia" (with vernaccia). Vernaccia is a wine that, in my opinion, perfectly complements fish. Usually a chef adds potatoes and sometimes also onion and cherry tomatoes.
A green salad is the most popular side dish in the Italian diet. It is served in a small dish and oil and vinegar are offered as dressing. In my opinion, it's the least appealing Italian dish, as it is really nothing more than green leaves, sometimes with added tomato or carrot.
Depending on the city, there may be different choices regarding side dishes. In Roma, chicory and red pepper are cooked together. It's a simple dish, but very tasty. So too are artichokes (available during its growing season, served with vinegar).
One of the healthiest Italian food dishes is grilled vegetables offered as a side dish in restaurants, especially during spring, when you can eat wonderful eggplants, zucchini and pepperoni, grilled and dressed with extra virgin olive oil (at home it is less often prepared, and people prefer tomato salad, potatoes and seasonal vegetables).
A typical Italian often eats fruit as dessert, leaving the sweets for other occasions. Seasonal fruits will always be prefered.
