The Italian regional food guide that treats Italy’s 20 culinary regions as the genuinely different cuisines they are rather than variations on the pasta-and-pizza theme that the international Italian restaurant has exported: the Piedmontese cuisine (the tajarin with the white truffle, the bagna cauda (the warm anchovy and garlic dip for the raw vegetables), the Barolo braised beef), the Venetian kitchen (the risi e bisi (the rice and peas, the dish that is neither the risotto nor the soup), the sarde in saor (the sardine in the sweet-sour onion sauce that the Venetian maritime tradition developed as the preservative for the long voyage), the cicchetti (the Venetian snacks, the bacaro bar, the ombra of the prosecco)), the Neapolitan (the pizza Napoletana with the 00 flour and the San Marzano tomato and the buffalo mozzarella and the 90-second wood-fired oven), and the Sicilian (the specific island synthesis described in 7 Days in Sicily). Why the Italian restaurant outside Italy is almost always the Neapolitan variant and why that is the correct first impression and the insufficient full picture.
Reading time: 8 minutes | Last updated: 202
The North-South Divide (The Real One)
The most important single fact about Italian food: the Po Valley rice and the Alpine butter versus the southern pasta and the olive oil.
The north of Italy (the Piedmont, the Lombardy, the Veneto): rice (risotto), polenta (the cornmeal porridge), butter, and the lard — the cold-climate, rich-soil, cattle-farming food culture.
The south of Italy (the Campania, the Sicily, the Calabria, the Puglia): pasta (the durum wheat, the semolina, the specific southern wheat that the harder southern climate grows), olive oil, tomato — the hot-climate, terraced-hillside, smallholder food culture.
The dividing line runs roughly along the Po River. South of the Po: pasta. North of the Po: risotto. Within each half: the further regional distinctions that the 20-region system produces.
The Six Regional Cuisines
1. Piedmont
The white truffle (tartufo bianco): The Alba white truffle (Tuber magnatum Pico — the truffle found only in the Langhe and the Monferrato hills of Piedmont and in a small area of Umbria, the truffle that commands €3,000-5,000 / £2,590-4,311 per kg in the October-December season, the truffle shaved raw over the tajarin pasta or the uova al burro (the fried eggs in the butter)):
The Alba Truffle Fair (the October-November festival in the Langhe town — the largest white truffle market in the world, the truffle auction visible at the fair tent): the specific Piedmont seasonal event.
The bagna cauda (the warm bath — the anchovy, the garlic, the olive oil, the butter, heated in the fusèt (the ceramic individual burner), the raw vegetables dipped): the specific Piedmont communal winter dish, the convivialità (the Italian communal dining ritual) visible in its most specifically regional form.
2. Venice and the Veneto
The cicchetti and the bacaro:
The bacaro (bàcaro in Venetian dialect — the specific Venetian wine bar, the rough bar serving the ombra (the small glass of wine, from the tradition of moving with the wine glass into the shade (ombra = shadow) of the campanile)): the cicchetti (the small snacks served on the bar counter — the baccalà mantecato (the whipped salt cod, the specific Venetian fish preparation, the cod beaten with the olive oil into the mousse served on the polenta crouton), the sarde in saor, the polpette (the meatball in the sauce)):
The Veneto cicchetti circuit: the bars of the Dorsoduro and the Cannaregio starting at 11am (the spritzo aperol with the cicchetti is the correct Venice lunch, at €2-4 per piece).
3. Emilia-Romagna — The Fat Valley
The specific claim: The Emilia-Romagna (the strip of Italy from Parma to Bologna to Rimini) is the most productive single food region in Europe by GDP contribution per square metre: the Parmigiano Reggiano (the 24-month aged cheese, the specific PDO production visible at the caseifico (the cheese factory)), the Prosciutto di Parma (the 18-month aged ham, the pig fed the whey from the Parmigiano production, the specific Parma food cycle), the Aceto Balsamico di Modena (the balsamic vinegar aged in the battery of barrels in the attic, the 12-year minimum, the 25-year extra vecchio at €80-200 / £69-172 per 100ml bottle), and the ragù alla Bolognese (the actual Bolognese sauce — the slow-cooked beef and pork mince in the soffritto and the wine and the milk, the meat visible in the sauce rather than the tomato, the specific Bologna preparation that the spaghetti-bolognese international variant misrepresents):
4. Naples and Campania
The Vera Pizza Napoletana:
The AVPN (the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana — the organisation that codified and protects the Neapolitan pizza standard since 1984): the specific requirements: the 00 flour, the San Marzano DOP tomato, the Campana buffalo mozzarella, the 90-second bake in the wood-fired dome oven at 485°C.
The Pizzeria da Michele (Via Cesare Sersale 1-3, Naples — the 1870 pizzeria that serves only two pizzas: the marinara (tomato, garlic, oregano, olive oil — no cheese) and the margherita (tomato, mozzarella, basil)): €4.50-6.50 / £3.88-5.60. The two-hour queue. Worth the queue.
5. Puglia
The orecchiette con le cime di rapa (the ear-shaped pasta with the turnip tops — the specific Puglia pasta shape (the ear, pressed with the thumb across the small pasta disc by the nonna on the street in the Bari Vecchia visible daily), the bitter turnip top (cime di rapa), the anchovy, the garlic, the olive oil):
The Puglia olive oil (the 40% of Italy’s total olive oil production, the specific Puglia intensity from the Ogliarola and the Coratina varieties that give the peppery finish at the back of the throat that the northern Italian olive oil does not):
6. Sicily
Full detail: 7 Days in Sicily. The specific food additions not covered in the destination guide: the caponata (the sweet-sour aubergine relish — the aubergine, the celery, the capers, the tomato, the vinegar, the sugar, the specific Arab-Sicilian food preservation technique), the cassata (the ricotta-filled sponge cake with the pasta reale (the marzipan) exterior and the candied fruit, the specific Sicily confectionery at the bar on any Sicilian Sunday morning).
