Italian food vegetables

Italian food vegetables: how to prepare Italian roasted vegetables like grilled eggplant, one of the main Mediterranean foods.

Italian food vegetables is probably not the correct expression, as vegetables are not the property of Italian cuisine, but Italians are used to searching for their origins and often find them to be Italian!

I cannot afirm which vegetables originated in Italy. I just mean those that are so commonly used in Italian dishes that they are considered typically Italian!

Eggplant is available in many countries, but beside Greek moussaka, I do not know of any other cuisine with so many famous and tasty eggplant recipes as Italian cuisine.

Some years ago my sister came to visit me and we were invited to have dinner at a friend's house. I forgot to tell this friend that my sister didn't like eggplant...

Well, she prepared antipasto with eggplant, pasta with eggplant and grilled eggplant as a main dish. Since then, my sister has loved eggplant! Eggplant parmigiana is possibly the best known recipe, but you can cook eggplant in many different ways, grilled, "in pan", fried and so on.

Eggplant has few vitamins, but plenty of fiber. Try some of these eggplant recipes.

Nearly all Italian food vegetables are delicious when fried in batter. It's very often served in local restaurants in Rome, in particular. Click here to learn how to do it.

Another typical vegetable is zucchini. The best recipe is the stuffed zucchini, but it can also be grilled, or fried in a pan.

We cannot talk about Italian food vegetables without mentioning red pepper! Pay attention, because in Italy the word peperone (peperoni in plural form) means red pepper. The sausage that is commonly known in many countries called "peperoni" does not exist in Italy!

Broccoli is very often used in Italian dishes. The best known recipe is with pasta, but it is used also in calzoni. It may be boiled and used in salads, dressed with salt and extra virgin olive oil.

You will always find, in any restaurant or home, a bowl of salad as a side dish. It can be simple, made with lettuce, salt and oil, or with tomato and other green leaves.

Artichokes are another Italian delicacy. You can eat them raw in a salad or cook them in many ways, for example as a risotto.
In Sardinia I often see people eat it raw, but it has to be fresh!. I prefer to cook it and a good recipe is stuffed artichokes.

The tomato (pomodoro) is probably the most widely used vegetable. It is largely used for sauces , but also for salads and grilled dishes.

The many types of mushrooms (funghi) found in Italy allow for a large variety of recipes that range from simple grilled ones, to tagliatelle ai funghi, that pleases even those who are not fond of funghi. However mushrooms are at their best in a risotto!

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