If you are ever in Parma, Italy, you will not want to call your visit complete until you have checked out the Acadamia Barille. Here, you will find courses and information on Italian gastronomy, or food. Whether you are a professional chef or an amateur who just wants to know how to make spaghetti like an Italian native, there is a class that is made for you. If you would rather eat (or drink) the local specialties than learn how to cook them, the Acadamia offers food and wine tours, as well.
The food experts at Acadamia Barille recently came up with a list of unbreakable rules when it comes to eating and cooking Italian food.
Look through this list and see whether you’re breaking any of the 10 Italian cooking commandments:
- You shall not sip cappuccino during a meal. This frothy concoction is an appropriate part of your Italian breakfast but should not accompany lunch or dinner, unless you want to have it after the meal is over. This is allowed, though you will be marking yourself as a non-Italian, because Italians drink espresso after dinner.
- Risotto and pasta are not side dishes. To Italians, risotto and pasta are courses unto themselves and not to be paired with the entree as side dishes. We won’t tell if you want to serve creamy risotto alongside a chicken breast in your own home, but don’t do it in Italy!
- You shall not add oil to pasta water. But sticking! And overboiling! If those were the thoughts that came to your mind, here’s how to remedy these problems: Use more water and a bigger pot. Remember that it takes four quarts of water to properly cook a pound of pasta. If you’re having over-boiling issues, try laying a wooden spoon over the top of the pot. I’m not sure if true Italians do that, but it does work, and doesn’t make your noodles greasy.
- You shall not put ketchup on your pasta. I did not know that anyone actually did this, but if you do, then stop. At least don’t do it in an Italian restaurant or, worse, in Italy!
- Spaghetti Bolognese? No way; it’s tagliatelle! This seems to be a matter of semantics, since they’re referring to the flat noodles with meat sauce that most of us think of when we hear spaghetti Bolognese (which, by the way, has a silent g). The meat sauce is referred to as Ragu.
- Chicken pasta: Not in Italy. Dishes like chicken Parmesan and chicken Alfredo are American concoctions. Poultry and pasta do not go together in Italy.
- Caesar salad is not Italian. Caesar was, but not the salad named after him. If you ask for a Caesar salad in Italy, chances are that you will receive a confused look in return.
- The red-and-white checkered tablecloth is just a stereotype. If you are opening a true Italian restaurant, there is no need to stock up on these particular linens, it seems.
- Fettuccine Alfredo is not Italian. Say it isn’t so! The most popular Italian dish that is available at many restaurants in America isn’t even Italian. Italians don’t even make sauces with cream to put on pasta. Don’t expect to order this if you go to Italy. Or, if you do, don’t expect to actually have it served.
- You shall respect tradition and what Italian Mamma says. The point being that in Italy, and in Italian-American families, food is all about tradition and passing cooking wisdom down along the generations.
Authentic Italian Cooking Secrets
If you want to bring a little bit of Italy into your home you can make an authentic tasting dish. Here’s some rules that you need to follow in order to make a basic Italian meal.
- Do not put cheese on your pasta. A lot of people think that if they are eating pasta that they have to put cheese on it. In Italian kitchens this is simply not always the case. Sure, dishes like lasagna have a lot of cheese in them, but not all dishes do. If your pasta dish contains mushrooms, seafood or olives you should save the cheese for another time.
- Garlic for everyone, just not too much. Italian food is known for its garlic. However, many American’s use too much of it trying to imitate foods that they’ve eaten in Italy. Italian households generally only use about 3 cloves of garlic in their dishes. For example, for seafood recipes the rule of thumb is about 1-2 cloves of garlic.
- Simplicity is key. Italians know the importance of buying fresh ingredients. It’s not uncommon for them to know the butcher where they get their meat or the farmer where they get the milk from. Recipes tend to be simple. There’s no need to use a lot of elaborate ingredients because since they only use the best ingredients in their food, the taste really shines through.
- Italian cooking has some variation. Each cook has their own way of doing things. This means that the preparation and entrees will vary from household to household and from Northern to Southern Italy. For instance while in Bologna the Bolognese sauce is called Ragù, in Southern Italy (Naples area) Ragù is tomato sauce made cooking it with a piece of meat for hours (sometimes even a day), and to differenciate it from the northern version with grinded meat, they call that “Ragù alla Bolognese”.
Pizza, please, but what type?
Something that was not mentioned by Barilla was the huge difference in Italian pizza vs. American versions. You don’t often find a pizza in Italy with tons of toppings. The crust is often rolled with olive oil and spices. Many Americans are disappointed by the pizza in Italy as there is less cheese and sauce than what we are accustomed to. I would argue that the view itself (pictured above,) makes Italian Margherita pizza the best I have ever had.
Italian pizza is a flat bread that is baked in the oven and topped with a variety of different items such as cheese and pepperoni. There are generally two types of pizzas: Roman style and Neapolitan Style.
- Neapolitan style pizza tends to have a thick crust. It is the most common form of pizza eaten in the United States. In Italy it’s most common in Naples.
- Roman style pizza has a thinner crust. It’s crispy in texture and a favorite among tourists and locals in Rome.
Italian pizzas tend to be topped with either tomato sauce (pizze rosse) or white sauce (pizze bianche). The majority of the pizzas are made with a high quality wheat flour and baked in a brick oven after the dough has been hand-made and kneaded.
Another pizza tip – pepperoni pizza is not what you think. Pepperoni is Italian for peppers, so you would end up with a pizza with peppers on top – order salami pizza and you will get the pepperoni you are craving.
So, what do you think? If you are Italian-American, do you agree with these commandments? If you haven’t been, why not take an Italy tour vacation and judge Authentic Italian food for yourself?
You can find more cooking wisdom at the Acadamia Barille website: http://www.academiabarilla.com/
