Do not take our word for it. In 2011, Oxfam determined that pasta was the worldwide favorite food. And in 2016, the Guinness World Record for Delivery of High-altitude Meal was set on top of Mount Kilimanjaro (5,897 m; 19,347 ft), not with a few fish tacos like a chicken mattress, but … a pepperoni pizza with extra cheese (1).
There is hardly a latitude without a pizzeria. The northernmost part of the world is apparently in Kirkenes (The Ritz, a multilingual ‘Pizzeria Disco Football Pub’). The southernmost part of the world could be the Rotiseria Sol Y Mar in Ushuaia, Argentina.
All the peoples of the world – with one notable and very ironic exception (2) – seem to have at least one Italian restaurant. You can eat Italian style in Kabul, Tehran – and even in Pyongyang. The North Korean capital has three branches of a local chain called General ‘Italy Pizza’. (The fruit pizza on the menu may not be to everyone’s taste).
Too bad it’s all a shame. Italian food does not really exist. Or rather: ‘Italian food’ as a uniform category exists only outside Italy. Within the boat-shaped land, there are only regional cuisines, with some dishes being entirely local and others existing in a variety of local versions.
A variety that sometimes frustrates even the most discerning insiders. On one of his television trips through Italy, UK celebrity chef Jamie Oliver was visibly frustrated by the commitment of the population that their pasta should be prepared as this one and not fun dat, because it had always been the same this one, en dat was how she did it over there!
The past provides an explanation: although Italy has a lot to do with ancient history, the modern, united state of Italy is a fairly recent invention, dating back to 1861. All those separate duchies, republics and princes that preceded it had long history and their own laws, customs, cultures and cuisines.
That is one reason why the various regions of Italy, and sometimes even individual cities and towns, jealously preserve the ownership of their culinary tradition. Traditional Tuscan bread is made without salt – following an old (and now abbreviated) salt tax. Parma – and nowhere else – is the original home of both Parmigiano (cheese) and prosciutto (ham).
Climate and geography also play a role: the north, more suitable for dairy farming, prefers cream and butter for cooking over olive oil. And then there are foreign influences. Sicily and other parts of the south have taken Arab influences on board, such as a preference for herbs and spices, couscous, and oranges.
Here is a map that gives an overview of the culinary diversity of Italy, and an opportunity to reconnect with the geography of the country.
Starting in the north we have:
- Aosta Valley, known for his fonduta en fountain cheese, kale and valpelline sop.
- Liguria, famous for its focaccia and pesto.
- Piedmont, the origin of vitello tonnato (veal in tuna sauce), and also known for brasato al Barolo (meat cooked in red wine).
- Lombardy, a rice-growing region, hence the tens risotto the recipe. The region is also known for its ossobuco, a meat cut with bones open to the marrow.
- Trentino-Alto-Adige, home of the German-speaking minority of Italy, with some implications for local favorites, e.g. the lump (canederli in Italian), strudel en speck.
- Veneto, rich in culinary influences and exports, which includes cicchetti, a tapas-like appetizer, and tiramisu (literally: ‘pull-me-up’), a rich dessert.
- Friuli-Venezia-Giulia, which has a tradition of service bollito misto (mixed platter of cooked meat) with beer, reflecting the Austrian influence.
- Emilia-Romagna, its capital is Bologna, nicknamed the grass (‘the fat’) and famous for her tagliatelle alla Bolognese. Italians would never, like the rest of the world, combine spaghetti with Bolognese sauce (3).
In the center there is
- Tuscany, humble-bragging with his ‘povera cucina’, home of pecorino cheese and Brunello wine.
- Umbria, famous for sniffing truffles and – unfortunately for the barges who suck at those underground delicacies – also for sniffing them porchetta, a rich dish based on roast pork.
- March, especially known from olives and lasagna vincisgrassi, a variant prepared in honor of Alfred von Windisch-Graetz, an Austrian general in the war against Napoleon
- Lazio, which includes Rome, and thus also a central place in the food history of Italy: of the pasta carbonara about guanciale (pork cheek, an important ingredient for pasta amatriciana) to oxtail.
- Abruzzo, where they grow and eat a lot pepperoncini, for example in the maiale ‘ndocca’ ndocca (‘pig piece by piece’).
- Tiny Molise, where you can get the best spaghetti alla chitarra (guitar spaghetti), square instead of round in shape, like the coniglio alla molisana (grilled rabbit with sauce and spices).
And lastly, the south, with
- Campania, which includes Naples, home of the pizza. The region is also known for its meatballs and its long tradition in strong coffee.
- Puglia, which is made into handmade pasta (incl orecchiette, as ‘small ears’).
- Basilicata, proud of her bacalla con i pepperoni cruschi (salty cod with dried peppers), and on its extensive pepper cultivation in general.
- Calabria, where you can become good involtini di pesce spada (bread swordfish rolls).
- Sardinia, famous for its thin, crunchy bread known as pane sardo one has malloreddus al sugo di salsiccia, a gnocchi-like pasta with gravy sauce.
- Sicily, with his arancine di riso, a popular appetizer; syn pasta with le sarde (sardine pasta); and its citrus trees, which have given Italy and the world the sorbet.
Here is a similar survey on the regional diversity of Italian cuisine, with fewer examples, but all in the picture – in fact, the food makes the card itself.
Italians may argue about what the highlights of Italian cuisine are and how they prepare them, on one thing they all agree: Italy is the home of good food. The farther they come from their country, the less the experience: from fattening over tasteless to toxic.
America, although it has done so much to popularize the dish, is home to ‘fake pizza’. China, although it is where Marco Polo imported it, is home to ‘fake pasta’. And they are also not too friendly about their neighbors in the Mediterranean, which is crossed by two meridians: one for too much pasta, the other for muddy coffee.
First map found here at Weeks of Italy. Second card found here at A Foodie World. Third card from Yanko Tsvetkov’s Atlas of Prejudice found here at Brilliant cards.
Update May 10, 2018
Here is another recording of Italy’s regional recipes, made and sent by Marco Zanini:
Massimo Barbieri sent on a similar map, focusing on the varieties of wine produced throughout Italy.
Foreign Cards # 902
Do you have a foreign card? Let me know at [email protected].
(1) A pizza hut stunt to celebrate the chain’s expansion into its 100th brand, Tanzania (location of Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa). The pizza was delivered from Dar es Salaam by plane, jeep and a relay of walkers, with a specially designed backpack to keep the food warm and fresh.
(2) The Vatican – in the center of Rome – does not seem to have a restaurant.
UPDATE, May 10, 2018. Reader Loye W. Young points out: “The Vatican does indeed have a restaurant, The Restaurant (I have food there), and it serves Italian food (pizza is the most striking, of course). It is a cafeteria, but also offers take-out, and even some catering. (Apparently, even the Vaticanistas need pizza and Coke for long meetings.) “
(3) Similarly, spaghetti with meatballs is an American invention and an abomination to Italians of a culinary sensitive disposition.
(4) Like Italy itself, the modern pizza is a fairly recent invention. The first pizzeria in Italy was founded by Pietro Colicchio in Naples in 1780. In 1889, Raffaele Esposito popularized the dish by designing the pizza at Margherita in honor of a visit to the city by the new Queen of Italy. Hence the name, and the patriotic ingredients, in the three colors of the Italian flag: red (tomatoes), white (mozzarella) and green (basil). The court ruled in Naples, and through Neapolitan immigrants, also in America – and faster than in the rest of Italy. The word ‘pizzeria’ did not appear until 1918 in Italy.
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