22 Aug Fun Facts About Italian Food
Not all of my family is Italian, but my mother’s side is all Italian, and I grew up associating Italian food with comfort, home, and cooking from the heart. It is the cuisine that has ignited my taste for handcrafted goodness and hunger for recipes that delight not just my palate, but also those that I share my food with.
There’s simply something about Italian food that reminds me of warm hearths and, at the risk of sounding too cheesy, love.
In all my years immersed in the food culture of Italy and exploring every possible gastronomic delight that it has to offer, I have become familiar with certain nuances and fun details about it. Every time I attempt to recreate an Italian dish, I find myself recalling certain superstitions and fun tidbits about the dishes that I make.
In my book Cooking for the Family: All You Need Is Love, But a Great Meal Doesn’t Hurt, I’ve included a chapter about some of the most fun and interesting facts about Italian cuisine.
And so, borrowing some of the facts that I listed there, and adding a bit of what I’ve learned through the years as well, here are 11 fun facts about Italian food that I just can’t seem to forget.
- Spaghetti and meatballs is not an Italian dish.
When we think of pasta, one of the first things that instantly comes to mind is a plate filled to the brim with thick red spaghetti and a few meatballs on top. When this happens, we might instantly label this in our heads as an Italian dish, but it’s really not. You see, the Italians do not actually put meatballs on their spaghetti. In fact, most of their pasta dishes are not topped with meat, except maybe for al forno.
- Yes, Italians do love pasta.
Consider this: Italians love eating pasta so much that they eat a pasta dish at least once every day. Overall, the average Italian will have eaten more than 51 pounds of pasta per year.
- The Caesar salad was created by an Italian . . . in Mexico
Yet another culturally misassigned food is the Caesar salad. Thought to be a staple in Italian cuisine, the Caesar salad was actually conceptualized and invented in Mexico. We have Caesar Cardini (yes, he happens to be Italian) to thank for this light and tasty discovery.
- “Buon appetite” is a pre-meal saying.
Much like how the Japanese say “itadakimasu” before partaking in their meal, Italians say “buon appetite” before they eat theirs.
- There are over 350 pasta shapes.
Well, didn’t we say that Italians really love their pasta? There are about 350 pasta shapes referenced in a variety of recipe books, each made to complement every type of pasta dish.
- Pizza was invented in Naples.
Of course, we all know that Italian cuisine is not all pasta—there’s pizza too. The pizza that we know and love today was invented in the 18th century in Naples, Italy. We have Raffaele Esposito’s stroke of genius to thank for this creation.
- Water, wine, and bread are staples in Italian dinner settings.
Three things that will never be absent at an Italian dinner table: water, wine, and bread.
- Italians eat a light breakfast and a heavy lunch.
Elsewhere, breakfasts are believed to be the most important meal of the day. Italians, however, do not subscribe to this idea. Instead, they often start their day off with a simple sip of coffee so they can reserve their appetite for what is the most important meal of the day: lunch.
- Garlic bread isn’t actually Italian.
Most Italian restaurants will start you off with heavily buttered garlic bread. However, you might be surprised that this isn’t something that authentic Italian restaurants do. The closest to garlic bread that you might find is a bruschetta, which is a grilled slice of bread with a bit of oil and garlic. It’s certainly a far cry from the usual greasy garlic bread that you might be used to eating.
- Italians prefer espresso.
Latte, macchiato, cappuccino—these are all Italian-sounding names, for sure. But if you want to drink coffee as Italians do, you’ll simply have to make do with a straight shot of espresso. In the mornings, however, they do indulge in a bit of milky coffee as their choice of breakfast beverage.
- Bread is certainly not an appetizer in Italy.
In most Italian restaurants that we eat in, we’ll be served with a complimentary basket of bread as an appetizer. As a result, some of us have come to associate this with Italian dining. However, in Italy, bread is not actually considered an appetizer. Instead, it is used at the end of the meal to clean up the sauce from the plate. This tradition or age-old ritual is called the “fare la scarpetta.”
Read many more of my fun cooking fact, great family recipes and fun thoughts in my cookbook, Cooking for the Family: All You Need Is Love, But a Great Meal Doesn’t Hurt.
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