What do I mean with popular Italian foods? I mean the food Italians prefer in their daily life. Popular in the sense of coming from normal people, normal situations, common life. | Beginning with breakfast, Italians prefer a
cornetto
(pastry) together with a cappuccino or coffee. It’s the most typical and popular breakfast in Italy. You can find a cornetto in any bar you enter during the morning. (Remember they are fresh and cooked only for the day, so you may also find them finished during the late morning.) |
| It is not possible to talk about popular food in Italy without considering the classical “pasta al pomodoro”. It’s the simplest and most common dish, that is served from infant schools to aged people hospice, just to render the idea. |  |
It’s simple and easy to digest, as pasta is made of wheat flour and water, and the
tomato sauce
with tomato, extra virgin olive oil, onion, garlic and salt. All healthy ingredients with an easy taste that pleases quite everybody. The rice is very used too, as it is a cereal as wheat and corn, but less fat. The Italian
risotto
became known probably due to Italians' rice quality and its particular way to cook it. Concerning meat, it differs a little between Italian regions, for example around Rome the porchetta is very known (roasted pork that is eaten sliced, often inside bread), so as the abbacchio (baby lamb). In Sardinia porcetto (small pork) is the most known and searched. | Italians like to eat a piece of cheese after a meal. There are a lot of wonderful cheeses in Italy, but the most popular one is
Parmigiano Reggiano
. |  |
This cheese, known other than for its taste for its nutritional qualities, is given to babies grated in their soup, and accompanies him/her for the whole life. Turning to sweets and candies, the most popular one is probably the ice-cream. It is often artisan made and is one of the typical Italian products. Even if it recalls the warmest seasons, Italians do eat all over the year. In a typical ice cream parlour you can find homemade flavours as pistachio, hazelnut, coffee and red fruits, just to give an example. | | |
