ninemsn

In a country where a love of food — both cooking and eating! — lies at the heart of their culture, can it be any surprise that Italy is home to some of the world’s best cuisine? And while a few of their dishes have found considerable fame abroad, at home Italy is a country of many provinces, each specialising in distinctly different tastes, produce and dishes. We let our stomachs do the walking as we travel the food trail from north to south and discover the many faces of Italian food.

Friuli-Venezia Giulia

Bordering Austria and Slovenia, the food of Friuli-Venezia Giulia takes its cues from Slavic and central European culture. Pork meat and sausages often take centre stage, and their San Daniele del Friuli ham even has an annual June festival dedicated to it. Signature dishes include the sausage dishes porcina and muset con la brovada.

Head to: Trattoria ai Frati (Ph: 0432 506926) in Udine to try their tagliolini served with San Daniele ham.

Veneto

While there’s much diversity even within the region, risotto, vegetables and the much-loved polenta (prepared with meat, fish and cheese) are a common thread across the Veneto province. You’ll be sure to see soapa calda (pigeon and chicken soup), mushrooms and roe deer, risotto with scallops, scampi and cuttlefishes, creamed cod and stewed eel on menus.

Head to: Venice, where the Fiaschetteria Toscana has an excellent reputation for serving authentic Venetian food, including polenta.

Trentino-Alto Adige

Trentino-Alto Adige’s Austrian influences show with their Kaminwurz sausages coming highly recommended. As is their traditional speck juniper-flavored ham, and the Non Valley apple used in their famous strudel. Common dishes include barley soup, mushroom soup, bro brusa (a simple and savoury soup), rabbit with grappa, gulasch, roe deer with polenta and trout dishes.

Head to: Scringno del Duomo in Trento to order local specialties such as canederli di pomi con fonduta di taleggio (oven-baked dumplings with cheese).

Lombardy

Aside from Lombardy’s tasty gorgonzola blue cheese, it will be hard to pass up their cotoletta Milanese, egg soup of Pavia, pork and cabbage cassoeula and Valtelline pizzoccheri (a flat ribbon pasta) and bresaola (air-dried salted beef).

Head to: Al Garghet in Milan for the region’s beloved risotto alla Milanese, flavoured with saffron.

Aosta Valley

In this mountainous region you’ll find cheese fondue is popular, customarily served before or after soup made with cabbage, savoy, fontina and stale rye bread.

Head to: After your ski, tuck into food at the Le Petit Coq (0125 307997).

Piedmont

Piedmont’s specialties include its wide variety of excellent cheeses and bagna cauda (a delicious heated dip made of garlic, anchovies, olive oil, butter). The region’s chocolate has also made them famous around the world, such as gianduiotti made with the hazelnuts of the Langhe and Monferrato, and of course, Nutella.

Head to: Torino and purchase the ChocoPass, a set of 10 coupons to try the region’s best gianduiotti, pralines, cakes, biscuits, ice cream and hot chocolate.

Liguria

Liguria is indelibly tied up with their famous pesto sauce, but is also the region that produces excellent extra-virgin olive oils and seafood such as the fish soups ciuppin and buridda with stockfish, plus stuffed and fried sardines.

Head to: Genoa’s Maxela where diners rave about their gnocchi with pesto.

Emilia-Romagna

Full flavours dominate in this region where you’ll discover erbazzone (a quiche with spinach), pisarei e faso (small dumplings with beans), plus many types of homemade pasta. This is also home of Parma ham, Parmesan cheese and bolognese sauce.

Head to: Bologna’s Osteria dell’Orsa and order anything with the word “bolognese” in it!

Tuscany

Tuscan food is often characterised as being rustic and folk, with a heavy reliance on basic ingredients such as bread, spelt, legumes and vegetables. Soups are popular, such as their famous ribollita, bean soup, spelt soup, and fish dish cacciucco soup.

Head to: Trattoria Sostanza (Ph: 055 212691) in Florence for their zuppa alla paesana (peasant soup ribollita).

Umbria

Meat lovers shouldn’t pass up Umbria’s tasty pork sausages, hams and salami. It’s also here you’ll find the precious black truffle which pops up in menus across the region.

Head to: Osteria del Gambero in Perugia, which offers a tasting menu of dishes all prepared with Norcia’s black truffles.

Marche

Marche is home to vincisgrassi, the country’s first type of lasagna, along with tagliatelle, strozzapreti, and ascolana (stuffed olives, cream, zucchini, artichokes and lamb chops). One of the more unique dishes must be their brodetto, a fish soup that has over 14 fish species.

Head to: Ancona to eat La Moretta’s hearty Adriatic fish soup brodetto all’ anconetana.

Lazio

Here in Lazio you’ll see lots of gnocchi, spaghetti (cooked with lard and pecorino cheese), spaghetti carbonara (with eggs, pecorino and bacon), and rigatoni alla pajata. Other typical dishes include spring lamb with vegetables, Trastevere tripe, oxtail stew (Vaccinara style) and saltimbocca alla romana.

Head to: Rome’s Antico Forno Roscioli, which once picked up Italian food guide Gambero Rosso’s ‘best spaghetti alla carbonara’ award.

Abruzzo & Molise

You shouldn’t leave this region without tasting maccheroni alla chitarra, a homemade pasta cut on a machine with thin steel blades. Also pay special attention to some of the region’s dairy products, such as caciocavallo and stracciata of Agnone and Alto Molise, fior di latte mozzarella from Boiano, buffalo mozzarella from Venafro and pecorino of Matera.

Head to: Ristorante Marechiaro in Pescara and order their chitarra agli asparagi di mare.

Campania

We know what you’ll be feasting on in this part of the country: pizza! This sunny district boasts some of the world’s tastiest, juiciest tomatoes, then paired with the region’s famous buffalo mozzarella, add some basil and soon you’re on your way to a “pizza Margherita”.

Head to: L’Antica Pizzeria Da Michele in Naples, which was made famous by Elizabeth Gilbert’s mouth-watering description of their pizza in Eat, Pray, Love.

Apulia

Pugliese food relies on the combination of wonderfully fresh vegetables with pasta, as well as a strong accent on excellent seafood.

Head to: Lecce’s ‘Osteria degli Spiriti‘ and try the typical Pugliese pasta dish orecchiette, here served with with clams and chickpeas.

Basilicata

Important in Basilicata is durum wheat homemade pasta, while hot pepper appear in the region’s sauces, often called diavolicchio (little devil). Signature dishes include pancotto (a soup with toasted bread and eggs), and lamb dishes like gnumaredd (a meatloaf made with offal), the stew cutturiddi and lamb’s head, baked and seasoned with oregano and pecorino.

Head to: an establishment on Maratea’s central piazza, such as La Caffeteria (Ph: 0973 871802), to try the region’s nation-wide famous bitter digestif Amaro Lucano.

Calabria

The Calabrian hot pepper seems to epitomise this distinctive region, finding its way into many of the typical dishes, such as toasted bread with n’duja sausage or sardines, pork sausages and pasta sauces.

Head to: Bracieria (Ph: 0965 29361) in Reggio di Calabria, where the sapori della Calabria antipasto, featuring ricotta and chilli-hot bruschetta, has impressed.

Sicily

Extra-virgin olive oil, red oranges, sweet grapes, Pachino tomatoes, Pantelleria capers, prickly pears and the olives of Nocellara del Belice – just some of the high quality products you’ll find in Sicily. The region has also developed a reputation for their pastries, prepared with fresh ricotta cheese and almond paste.

Head to: Erice where La Pasticceria Maria Grammatico makes exquisite Cannoli.

Sardinia

Said to last over a year after baking, the crispy, flat bread pane carasau is a Sardinian specialty. Grilled suckling pig, seafood, pecorino, sausages and their cheeses are also renowned.

Head to: Olbia’s Ristorante Barbagia for traditional Sardinian fare, including pane carasau and suckling piglet!

ninemsn, December 2010.

Image (cc) roboppy