Italian Food

Italian Food — page 3
Italian Food Basics Traditions and Styles For many hundreds of years Italy was a divided land ruled by various groups of people These people introduced their cooking traditions and styles to different areas of Italy and though they may now be long gone their influence can still be seen in Italian cooking today CA ITAL IT Different traditions have influenced the many types of italian breads today such as pane di Altamura Left from Apulia grissini center from Piedmont and pane carasau right from the island of Sardinia Early Cultures Italian cooking is rooted in the ancient Etruscan culture 700 100 BCE from which focaccia and perhaps pasta originated The huge long lasting Roman Empire 400 BCE 400 ce brought to Italy baking skills from Greece and foreign ingredients such as Egyptian watermelon Later Influences From 900 CE Arabs from Syria and North Africa brought with them lemons spinach coffee rice and couscous The great trading city state of Venice brought in spices and sugar from Asia which were used to flavor Italian desserts In the 1500s CE important ingredients arrived from North and South America Today it is hard to imagine Italian cooking without tomatoes for pizza corn for polenta and chocolate for desserts Migrants from former Italian colonies in North Africa have added their own flavors