My number one recommendation when in Italy is to find out what the hyper-local food specialty is and choose that! There are foods you’ll find in one town, that are not available 50 kilometers away.
Why do I post pictures of what I eat? It’s to let you know that “Italian Food” is so very, very much more than “pizza, fettuccine and ravioli”! When you look at a map, you see that Italy is surrounded by the sea, thus, seafood is a very big component of what’s offered, in many different forms, both cooked and raw.
Also… be curious. Order something that you have no idea what it is. You might discover something that becomes your new all-time favorite… or not. But at least you tried it! I’ve ordered deep-fried brains, diaphragm tartare, kidneys, tripe, etc. Try it at least once.
And it’s great to be eating with another adventurous eater, “un buongustaio… una buona forchetta”, egging each other on about what to order from the menu and sharing plates. In my travels this year, I’ve had David and Hannah accompanying me at meals, one and then the other. We sought the most local, traditional foods… and relished them. With them, I traveled from Milano, to Bari (Puglia), Matera (Basilicata), Napoli (Campania), Nulvi (Sardegna) and back to Milano. A WORLD of ingredients and flavors!
In Italy, in Europe, some of the food and agriculture regulations are very different, banning some components that are still allowed in the U.S. So I trust the food in Italy more than I do back home. (I would never eat raw beef in the U.S. unless I personally knew the producer!)
So, eating here is very different. And, besides the food itself, I’m walking A LOT when I’m here, therefore, I don’t impose constraints on what I consume.
When you come here, I invite you to arouse your adventurous nature and try something new and wonderful. Order something for which you have no translation, and revel in this big, wonderful world of “Italian Food”.
Check out these other food posts:
Italian Food: Hungry? Eat this!
Italian Food: Eating the South
Italian Food: Porcini and Brooms
Milano – Vitello Tonnato. Thin-sliced veal with a pureéd tuna sauce, tomatoes and capers.
Bari – Cavatelli con gamberetti e gorgonzola. (Cavatelli pasta with shrimp and gogonzola cheese.)
Bari – Orechiette con cime di rapa (Orechiette pasta with broccoli rabe.)
Bari – Pugliese potatoes and rice.
Bari – Traditional Barese foods.
Bari – Local meats, cheeses, rice and breads.
Bari – Omelette (with lettuce?), bread, focaccia and coffee for breakfast.
Polignano a Mare – Focaccia Capricciosa and a stuffed focaccia.
Leuca – Mixed, fried “frutta di mare”, seafood. Squid, shrimp, anchovies, red mullet.
Leuca – The little, fried anchovies really are tiny.
Leuca – Anchovy “meatballs”. Mmmm
Bari – We returned home late and could only find a pizzeria open. We got some slow-roasted meat, a meat pastry, and house white wine in a plastic bottle, looking like a large urine sample.
Bari – The roasted meat, and meat-filled pastry.
Cerignola – Sausage, potatoes, greens and freshly-picked olives that burst in the mouth!
Matera – “Meatballs” of bread, in a tomato sauce.
Matera – Stuffed cabbage leaves.
Matera – Sauteéd greens on a bed of mashed potatoes.
Matera – Spicy olives.
Matera – Spaghetti alla Chitarra. With pesto and chopped pistacchios, with burrata cheese, and tuna tartare, with lime.
Matera – Regional, amaro digestive drink.
Matera – Breakfast of pastry with prosciutto and cheese (rather than sweet), with taralli and coffee.
Bari – Capuntini pasta with beans and local sausage.
Bari – Pork cheek with Aglianico sauce.
Bari – Pork cheek with Aglianico sauce. So tender!
Matera – Meat and cheese platter.
Matera -Ferricelli al peperone crusco. Fericelli pasta with crusco peppers.
Battipaglia – Smoke scamorza affumicata cheese and bufalo soppressata.
Battipaglia – Meats and cheeses from the water bufala.
Battipaglia – Fried dough pieces while waiting for our pizza.
Battipaglia – Margherita pizza.
Battipaglia – N’duja pizza. (Spicy Calabrian meat/pepper spread.
Napoli – Dough balls, fried with “friarielli” greens inside.
Napoli – Cozze e gamberi. Steamed mussels and prawns.
Napoli – Frutta di mare. “Fruit of the sea”: mixed seafood.
Napoli – Four flavor pizza.
Napoli – Pizza with mushrooms, olives, prosciutto cotto.
Napoli – The ricotta-filled sfogliatella pasty was literally unfurling.
Napoli – Ricotta cheese-filled zucchini blossoms, deep-fried.
Napoli – Octopus on a bed of potato.
Napoli – Stinco di Maiale con Spinaci. Pork knuckle slow-roasted, and served with spinach.
Napoli – Fried balls of rice, peas, meat, cheese, etc.
Napoli – “Savory” breakfast (not sweet) of pastry with prosciutto and cheese.
Napoli – Potato and sausage pizza.
Napoli – Octopus on a bed of potato.
Napoli – Triglie. Deep-fried Red mullet fish.
Napoli – Little fried fishies: Fresh anchovies brought from the sea that day.
Napoli – Un Caffè.
Napoli – Deep-fried pizza. (This one was disappointing and lacked flavor, but we had so much fun watching the crazy activity on the alleyway as we sat there.)
Napoli – Ziti Lardiati. This was disappointing, because it’s ziti pasta prepared with lard, tomato, onion and cheese, but there was so little evidence of the lard.
Napoli – Spaghetti alla Carbonara. Spaghetti with eggs, guanciale, parmigiano, black pepper.
Napoli – Cuoppo di pesce fritto. Paper cone of mixed, deep-fried fish.
Napoli – Un cuoppo of little fried fishies.
Napoli – Snack in the apartment: some Castelvetrano olives, bufala sopresatta, scamorza affumicata and remaining wine.
Napoli – Mixed seafood plate, both crudo (raw) and prepared. Tuna, salmon, octopus, swordfish, cod.
Napoli – Un Caffè.
Napoli – Three “meatballs” of different content.
Napoli – Pasta con Olive. Pasta with a tomato sauce and olive tapenade.
Napoli – Airport panino of mortadella and mozzarella.
Castelsardo – Malloreddus Pasta. Typical Sardegnan pasta.
Castelsardo – Deep-fried calamari.
Castelsardo – Grilled veggies, eggplant, zucchini, peppers.
Aggius – Hannah and seafood risotto.
Aggius – Seafood risotto.
Aggius – Grilled veggies.
Aggius – Maureen and Hannah relished the seafood risotto!
Aggius – Panna cotta with wild berries.
Nulvi – Breakfast of melon and soft-boiled eggs.
Nulvi – Snack of Nulvese cheese and bufala sopresatta.
Martis – Amanita cesarea mushrooms with shaved cheese, dressed with home-pressed olive oil and lemon juice.
Martis – Breaded, deep-fried porcini mushrooms.
Martis – Grilling sausage and other meat cuts.
Martis – Grilled sausage and other meat cuts.
Martis – Flatbread, split and filled with cheese, grilling.
Martis – Pastries for dessert.
Nulvi – Calamari antipasto.
Nulvi – Mixed antipasto.
Nulvi – Shrimp antipasto.
Nulvi – Frutti di Mare crudo antipasto. Seafood tartare.
Nulvi – Cozze. Mussels.
Nulvi – Tuna and swordfish crudo… “raw”.
Nulvi – Shrimp and sunflower seed “salad”.
Nulvi – Pasta with burrata and sauce.
Nulvi – This must be baked Orata.
Nulvi – Maureen and Hannah enjoyed their last dinner in Sardegna together.
Olbia – Mirto tasting at Sannia Distillery.
Olbia – Frozen myrtle berries at Sannia Distillery.
Olbia – Mirto poured over gelato.
Olbia – Airport dinner: salad of a whole bunch of veggies!
Milano – My “haul” from the Saturday Market here in Milano.
Milano – Castelvetrano olives. mmmm. Each one a mouthful.
Milano – Borlotti beans, onions and celery (from the Saturday market) on the stove to simmer.
Milano – Beef cheeks, slow-cooked and oh-so-tender, on a bed of polenta.
Milano – Sauteéd greens with olives.
Milano – Lunch from the fridge.
Milano – Paper-thin prosciutto crudo, di San Daniele.
Milano – Gorgonzola “Dolce”. Who needs butter?
Milano – Squash-filled ravioli with butter and black truffle.
Milano – Serving me a small “babà”, a rum sauce soaked sponge cake.
Milano – The Babà, showing the flush of rum sauce as my spoon cuts the soaked sponge cake.
Milano – Tagliatelle with black truffle. Mmm.
Milano – Sauteèd greens and tomato.
Milano – Un Caffè.
Milano – Rolled eggplant with cheese and tomato sauce.
