Italian food in your countries

I am just curious... what kind of particular dishes/recipes are considered "typical Italian" in your countries? I know the answers would likely to be "pasta, pizza", but how are they cooked and prepared?
The idea of Italian food, for example in the US is quite far off from the authentic cooking actually done in this country, and that surprises a lot of tourists. For example, dishes that are protagonists of many "Italian" restaurants there, like "Fettuccini Alfredo", "Caesar's Salad", "Marinara sauce" "Manicotti" "Spaghetti with meatballs", "Chicken alla Parmesan" etc. etc. are virtually unknown in Italy and while they may be pretty good in their own rights,
you would probably draw a blank look if you try to order them in Italy.

So... I wanted to know how Italian food has been interpreted in some other countries. I don't mean by any means it is a bad thing, it is more like a creative evolution, but keep in mind that when/if you come to Italy, the food/dishes may well not be exactly what you had been expecting!

Italian food is very popular in Finland, and I have always loved Italian kitchen. I fell in love with it when I was 10 years old and visited Italy with my father. I remember I was astonished that there were so many different variations of pasta - cannelloni, fettucini, tagliatelle, tortellini, lasagne and other very common Italian pastas were almost unknown here that time. Not in big cities/towns though: there were Italian restaurants in Helsinki and other cities, but I was a country girl from big woods, and the little towns nearby had only very traditional Finnish lunch bars. My father loved Italy so much that he learned to speak some Italian, and he was quite a creative cook, too - he wrote down recipes when he visited Italy (he did it many times) and got something especially good to eat - so my experiences are not "typical Finnish" experiences of Italian food in Finland.

The Italian pizza came to Finland only in 1961, when a man called Giovanni Todeschi opened a pizzeria in a little town in Southern Finland called Hamina. Pizzerias and pasta houses became common in 1970's. Nowadays many of them are not runned by Italians or Finns, but Turkish. I remember the first pizzerias which I visited in Helsinki, there was one called Il Treno (just opposite the main railway station of Helsinki), and the pizzas were excellent there. After that, we had many "american pizza restaurants" like Pizza Hut. In Finland, it was sometimes difficult to get fresh herbs and other essentials for pizza and pasta, now it's lot easier. I think most of the Italian restaurants still are quite ordinary pizza/pasta places, only bigger cities have real Italian restaurants.

I love cookbooks and of course, I have some Italian / pasta books. I try to find different recipes and sometimes, my husband (who loves cooking) makes his own recipes (like his "Mesopotamian pasta" with figs!) We still try to make Pasta Aglio & Olio as tasty as we had once in Garda, Italy. I think the memory of the perfection has something to do with the athmosphere - the beauty and the friendliness of the place where we eat it!

I have not answered to Licia's question perhaps, but I just told some memories of me & Italian food... It's so much more than pizza and pasta.

Thank you Kati for taking the time to answer me so much in depth!! It was a wonderful reply to my question, interesting and touching
Your father sounds like a great man!! And your husband too, you should post a recipe of "Mesopotamian Pasta", I remember you described it to me not long ago and it sounds delicious!!

And yes aglio-olio is a very popular, tasty dish, very simple and easy to prepare... another thing about the truth of Italian cooking, is its simplicity. Many of the bests of the Italian cuisine require surprisingly few ingredients, and prepared in such simple manner. Italians like to taste each and every components that make up a dish, and don't appreciate 100 ingredients all mushed up together with another 100 different spices and condiments smothered all over and you no longer understand what exactly you are eating. They instead focus on quality of ingredients, and many require very particular items produced only locally (which may be part of the reasons why Italian food had to be often largely modified abroad)

And as you pointed out Kati, Italian cuisine is so, so much more than just pizza and pasta. I will post some Italian recipes as the Italians do it in coming days, and will be glad to share what I have learned since I came here almost 8 years ago :

This is a wonderful post Licia!

Hum, to answer your question: Italian cuisine is very popular in Belgium as, pre & post 1945, many Italian immigrants came to live here. Especially in districts like Liège or Namur (in South Belgium). But Brussels has it's lot of Italian people as well.

Concerning the food, my Mom loves to "make" Italian food. But I think it's certainly not as good and as original as we can find in Italy. My Dad travelled a lot in Italy when he was my age, with his sister and their parents. I'm always amazed when he tells me that the Bolognese sauce is not traditional (is it true?) because I mean, here in Belgium, the pastas you'll find in every restaurant or at home will be made with it.

Usually, Mom does it with ognons, tomatoes and minced meat. She tried once to put red wine, carrots,... but my stomach didn't appreciate it She also cooks lasagnas, pastas carbonara or with pesto. She does another recipe, with calf but I will have to ask her what she puts in it.

I, of course, love pizzas. Especially when they are cooked in a traditional oven. But my culture about Italian food pratically ends here Sometimes, Mom does a Tiramisu but I can't stand the alcohol so she makes one without it for me.

Oh I am sure your mum's pasta is very tasty as well, not being authentic doesn't automatically mean a negative thing, I also tasted a very unique version of pasta prepared by a Dutch friend while I was in Holland, it contained various vegetables and sort of sausage and was seasoned with Nasi Goreng mix : certtainly not your every day Italian dish, but it was quite tasty all the same

Bolognese sauce IS a traditional recipe also very popular as well in Italy. It's just that the basic formula may be different from the foreign versions. In general the original form of Bolognese contain very little tomatoes, perhaps a few spoonful of concentrated tomato pastes, and it is mainly cooked in broth and wine. Most of the recipe indicates white wine, but personally I prefer to use red wine myself. It is also very heavy on meat and several kinds of meat are mixed, like beef AND pork mince, crumbled sausage, bacon, and many of the locals (the region around Bologna).like to mix in chopped mortadella, their regional specialty. However the truth is, like many other traditional dishes, every family, every mamma and grammas have their own special methods and twists to make their own Bolognese sauce, and each of them believe their version to be THE authentic And myself too, the particular of my version (though it vary every time, as my usual cooking method is to just throw in things without precise measurement) include red wine instead of white, I do prefer more tomatoes, the chunky tomatoes instead of paste (fresh ripe tomatoes while in season), much more garlic, and lighter on meat.

And I know some families do make alcohol free "Tiramisu" for kids without Marsala wine!!

I'm a big fan of Jamie Oliver and he once went to Italy to do a special tv cooking show. He said too that every mamma has her own recipe ^^. But I love lots of meat in the sauce. I do too mix pork & beef.

I'm loving mozzarella so much ♥ I just had a salad with some a few minutes ago. It's not the real mozzarella but I like it so far. I never had the chance to eat a real one, with buffala milk. And I love love love cappucinos ♥ That would be my guilty pleasure.

Jersey_Fierce wrote:

I'm a big fan of Jamie Oliver and he once went to Italy to do a special tv cooking show. He said too that every mamma has her own recipe ^^. But I love lots of meat in the sauce. I do too mix pork & beef.

I'm loving mozzarella so much I just had a salad with some a few minutes ago. It's not the real mozzarella but I like it so far. I never had the chance to eat a real one, with buffala milk. And I love love love cappucinos That would be my guilty pleasure.

Mozzarella made by regular cow milk IS also a regitimte mozzarella, however the mozzarella di Bufala, of course is the BEST!!!! The insalata Caprese (Caprese salad) is another one of an excellent simple pleasure, sliced, or bite size fresh mozzarella, tomatoes and fresh basil leaves. It is very italian when you see the colours too, bright red, white and green
The difficult thing about good mozzarella is, they are produced by the local buffaloes in Campania, a region around Naples, and the best consumed within a day or two because once it is stored in a fridge it modifies the flavours and the texure, it becomes much less creamy and turns gummy.
These days there are ways to transport quickly, but I imagine that affects the price too unfortunately You must come and visit Italy!!

I would love to! You see, my Mom and I were talking about going on vacation and she proposed Roma! I thought of you immediately but finally, we wanted a longer vacation and will go to Greece instead. But I'm hoping on making a city trip in Roma next year or so.