Antipasti/Soup
Pasta Dishes
Meat Dishes
Seafood Dishes
Salume
Cheese
Breads and Pizza
Sandwiches
*Anything aside from guanciale, pecorino Romano, black pepper, and, in some cases, grana padano.
**Fettuccine Alfredo originated in name at a single restaurant in Rome as a richer version of a common Italian dish, pasta al burro e parmigiano—consisting of only pasta, butter, parmigiano reggiano, and pasta water. The mixing (“mantecare”) of the fat from the butter and cheese with the starch from the pasta water creates an emulsified sauce—similar in process to the traditional Roman pastas cacio e pepe, gricia, and carbonara—and like carbonara, there is and was no cream in this dish. When this simple dish was exported to the United States, it was even further simplified by replacing the emulsified sauce with heavy cream. The original emulsified pasta al burro e parmigiano is still commonly eaten in Italy, especially by sick children, but not under the Alfredo name and certainly not with cream. In Naples, pasta al burro e parmigiano is known as pasta dei cornuti, or “pasta of cuckolds.” This dish of spaghetti or rigatoni, butter, parmigiano, and black pepper earned its name from its simplicity to make, and, as the anachronistic story goes, from wives who had extramarital affairs and, in the short time available before their husbands returned home, needed to put a hot meal on the table without being discovered.
†A type of hard low moisture mozzarella specific to North America—a young cow’s milk cheese more reminiscent of Caciocavallo or Scamorza—distinct in production, flavor, and consistency from the Italian Mozzarella per Pizza
Note on Rollatini: Italian-American “Rollatini” or “Rollatini di Melanzane” is equivalent to the Italian Involtini di Melanzane. Rollatini is a faux Italian word, much like Cioppino.
Note on Singular/Plural and Truncated Forms in English: In American English, some Italian food loanwords are improperly used in their plural form. For example, panini is the plural form of the Italian word panino, meaning a single sandwich, whereas in American English panini is often used to refer to a single sandwich. The same is true for cannoli in English, where cannoli is usually used as a singular, but it is grammatically plural; the corresponding singular is cannolo. Other common examples include lasagna (singular) and lasagne (plural), salame and salami, gelato and gelati, raviolo and ravioli, etc. Additionally, in English caffè latte is often shortened to latte, which is the Italian word for milk. If you order a latte in Italy you will be served a glass of milk. To order a mixture of coffee and milk in Italy, one must ask for a latte macchiato or caffè latte—of which the latter is not consumed after 11:00 am.§
Note on Italian-American Pronunciation: Many Italian-Americans, particularly those from the New Jersey area, have adopted a distinct pronunciation scheme, somewhat reminiscent of Neapolitan and Sicilian dialects, that involves dropping the last vowel of some words—a linguistic phenomenon not present in standard Italian. For example, mozzarella is pronounced “muzzarell,” prosciutto as “pro-shoot,” calzone as “cal-zone,” pasta e fagioli as “pasta ah fa-zhool,” and capocollo as “gabagool.” In standard Italian, every letter including double consonants are pronounced, apart from the letter “h,” which is silent.
For information on Japanese-Italian Cuisine, or “Itameshi,” see this guide, as well as these recipes for Pepe-Tama and Mentaiko Spaghetti. |
|
|
Ingredients/Techniques/Styles Not Used in Italy
Sauces
Holiday Meals
Other
Desserts
Beverages
“Italian” Named Items (Grouped)
‡In Italy, alla marinara refers either to sauces made with Mediterranean fresh herbs (such as fresh basil and oregano and often olives, capers, and/or anchovies) or seafood, and does not imply the inclusion or exclusion of tomato. However, alla marinara is also synonymous with pizza alla marinara—a Neapolitan pizza topped with only tomato, garlic, oregano, and olive oil. The Italian-American thin tomato based “marinara sauce,” commonly used as a pasta sauce, does not exist in Italy and when used on pasta is most similar to the Italian pasta al pomodoro
§In Italy, the use of milk or heavy cream in pastas, aside from very small amounts, is considered passé. Cream sauces or cream-based sauces are rare and differ significantly in consistency from their Italian-American counterparts. Italians tend to view milk and cream as heavy foods that hinder digestion—hence why cappuccinos are not consumed after 11:00 am. This may be the result of the exceedingly high 72% lactose malabsorption rate in Italy, especially as milk and cream contain significantly higher lactose contents than cheese or gelato.
‖The addition of sugar to tomato sauces can likely be traced back to Southern Italian immigrants who were compensating for the less flavorful tomato varieties found in North America—varieties bred for uniform size, shape, and color, rather than flavor—which lack the intense sweetness and acidity of the tomatoes grown in Southern Italy, such as the Piennolo del Vesuvio, Pomodoro di Pachino, San Marzano dell'Agro Sarnese-Nocerino, and others.
For Italian-American “Red-Sauce Joints” in New York City, we recommend Bamonte's, Emilio's Ballato, Monte's Trattoria, Don Peppe, Dominick's, and Sam's. For Italian-American sandwiches, we recommend Faicco’s Italian Specialties and Fiore's House of Quality. For more, see our New York City Guide. For Italian-American restaurants around the United States, see the Regional and Ethnic Cuisine section of our American Classics list. |
