Italy is famous for its amazing dishes, and most of these have been around for centuries. In this post, we shall discuss some of the most iconic dishes to eat in Italy. Read on for more information. You can also visit real italian food restaurants in Orlando, FL.
Pizza
This is an oven-baked, round, and flat-shaped bread covered with different ingredients like tomato sauce, olive oil, cheese, and other optional toppings like onion, chicken, or beef. There are two types of Italian pizza:
- Neapolitan – which is somehow thick on the outer edges
- Roman – this is a bit thinner and crustier
However, it’s important to note that none of these two pizzas resembles American pizza. Also, Italians make different pizzas: red pizza (with tomato sauce) as well as white pizza (also known as focaccia—this one doesn’t have tomato sauce, but has other toppings). All in all, an Italian pizza is a must-try dish when you visit Italy.
Lasagna
An Italian lasagna is an oven-bakes pasta meal, which consists of different sheets of pasta, alternated with different sauces and ingredients, including béchamel sauce or cheese, tomato sauce, different meats (mostly ground pork or beef or a combination of the two, and veggies (spinach, zucchini). Also, there’s a white version of Italian lasagna, without tomato sauce. The vegetarian option, on the other hand, the meat is replaced with spinach and zucchini. Lasagna is a typical home-made Italian dish, with endless variations, depending on the local tradition and region.
Risotto
This is a rice dish, usually served as a primo—apart from Milan where it’s traditionally served as a side dish with ossobucco. Risotto is a versatile dish, which can be flavored in various ways.
First, the rice is coated and toasted in butter, and then cooked in broth until a creamy consistency is achieved. The broth can be fish-based or meat-based, but this depends on the ingredients used to flavor the risotto. Almost every risotto recipe has parmesan cheese, (apart from the recipes with seafood), onion, and butter. You can try amazing risotto at the best italian food restaurant in Orlando.
The most famous risotto recipes include alla Milanese (with saffron) and alla Romana. Other classic risotto include:
- Risotto al tartufo bianco (served with white truffle)
- Risotto ai funghi
- Risotto ai frutti di mare (served with seafood)
Polenta
This is an Italian dish that consists of cornmeal, which is served with mashed potatoes or in hard loaves, which can be fried, grilled, or baled. The original polenta wasn’t yellowing, but darker, and it wasn’t made from maize, but with buckwheat, rye, or spelt (farro). However, the dish got its classic yellow color after maize was introduced in Europe.
One of the most iconic dishes in Italian cuisine is polenta, served with tomato sauce, port spareribs, and sausage.
Arancini, crochette, and suppli
Arancini are a Sicilian fried specialty, made from minced meat, potatoes or rice, fish, mixed in egg yolk, coated with breadcrumbs, and then fried in butter pan or oil. Typically, they are cylindrical, but in other areas of Sicily, there’s a Neapolitan variant, also known as e pall e riso. This is prepared with typical Neapolitan ingredients, and the end product is arancino that’s less dry, with extra tomato flavor.
The most common of these is the Italian cuisine include rice, rice arancini, as well as potato croquettes, and Milanese rice croquettes. However, Milanese croquettes are a bit different and more flavorful than potato croquettes, and it’s served as a side dish in other countries.
Grissini
These are long, thin, and crisp breadsticks mostly bought alongside the breadbasket in restaurants. Grissini can be flavored with different sesame seeds, spices, and herbs. They came from Piedmont, and they’ve become common in Italy. Mostly, they vary from pre-made and pre-packed standardized breadsticks to home-made—and they are a signature snack taken before meals.