A selection of articles dedicated to Fun Facts about special Italian ingredients, recipes or traditions.
Lentils are a very versatile ingredient. During the cold winter season, lentils become a staple ingredient for cooking ‘comfort food’ recipes, and definitely not just in Italy! They are mostly used in soups, but are very good cold as well. You could make a spicy Middle Eastern-style salad, or you can use them to make…
Cured meats are a huge and fundamental component of the Italian food culture! You might have heard of the uber famous Prosciutto di Parma before, right? Well, that is just one of the hundreds of varieties of cured meats produced in Italy. Known under the term of salumi, it includes anything from prosciutto (ham) to salami…
Mushrooms are a typical autumnal product and a very intriguing one too! Don’t let their appearance fool you, though, they can be quite deadly. Let’s find out some interesting fun facts about these mysterious organisms. Mushrooms are more closely related to humans than to plants. Portabello mushrooms, button mushrooms, and white mushrooms are all the…
When September comes, it usually means only one thing in Italy: WINE HARVEST TIME! All over the country in every region of the peninsula there is a lot of buzz and excitement around this event, which is part of our culture and an historical tradition. It used to be moment of celebration, everyone in the…
Everyone who calls themselves a cook should know their herbs and know how to use them in the kitchen. As Italians we are born with an innate gift for cooking and an expert nose, so we are very good at recognising smells and fragrances, especially when it comes to our food. Did you know that…
Fellini was right, what would life have been if we didn’t have pasta? Pasta is a staple in the Italian diet and it is truly a versatile ingredient to use in thousands of different combinations. And it is about these combinations that today’s post is about. As you might have noticed our Menu looks a…
If there is one thing us Italians are known for – apart from the amount of pasta and pizza we eat – is without a doubt the amount of coffee we drink! And we don’t even grow coffee in our country! Imagine if we actually did … Some would even stretch as far as thinking, that…
La Festa degli Innamorati or La Festa di San Valentino – as it is known in Italy – is definitely THE most romantic day of the year. A day dedicated to the celebration of love in all its forms, a day in which lovers show their Dolce Metà (sweet halves) how much they care about them.…
Have you ever wondered why we have a type of pasta called Strozzapreti, which basically means “priests stranglers” ? Despite this sinister translation from Italian, which makes these pasta twirls sound quite a dangerous thing to eat and not really very appealing, as you would imagine a pasta dish to be, Strozzapreti are indeed innocuous and really…