Italian food remains determinedly regional. Northern Italian cuisine includes the butter-, cream- and truffle-rich cooking of the French-influenced northwest, the Tyrolean ham, sausage and dumplings of the northeast, and the light basil, fish and pinenut dishes of Liguria. Food in central Italy is characterized by the hearty wood-roasted steaks of rural Tuscany and the black truffles, hams and salamis of Umbria, while in traditional trattorias of Rome, offal reigns supreme. Continuing south, the classic vegetables of the Mediterranean take over, and the predominant meat is lamb (spit-roast and scented with wild herbs) while traditional dishes based around pulses and wild greens belie the recent poverty of the region. Finally, across the Messina Straits to Sicily, history is enshrined in rich, fragrant dishes such as aubergine caponata, fish couscous, and almond-milk- and jasmine-scented granitas, the abiding legacy of Arab rule.
Restaurants
Traditionally, a trattoria is a cheaper and more basic purveyor of home-style cooking (cucina casalinga), while a ristorante is more upmarket, though the two are often interchangeable. Osterie are common too, basically an old-fashioned restaurant or pub-like place specializing in home cooking, though some upmarket places with pretensions to established antiquity borrow the name. A pizzeria is always best with a forno a legna (wood-burning oven) rather than an electric one. In mid-range establishments, pasta dishes go for €6–12, while the main fish or meat courses will normally cost between €8 and €16.
The menu
Traditionally, lunch (pranzo) and dinner (cena) start with antipasto (literally “before the meal”), a course consisting of various cold cuts of meat, seafood and vegetable dishes, generally costing €5–12. Some places offer self-service antipasto buffets. The next course, the primo, involves soup, risotto or pasta, and is followed by the secondo – the meat or fish course, usually served alone, except for perhaps a wedge of lemon or tomato. Fish will often be served whole or by weight – 250g is usually plenty for one person – or ask to have a look at the fish before it’s cooked. Note that by law, any ingredients that have been frozen need to be marked (usually with an asterix and “surgelato”) on the menu. Vegetables or salads – contorni – are ordered and served separately, and there often won’t be much choice: potatoes will usually come as fries (patate fritte), but you can also find boiled (lesse) or roast (arrostite) potatoes, while salads are either green (verde) or mixed (mista) and vegetables (verdure) usually come very well boiled. Afterwards, you nearly always get a choice of fresh local fruit (frutta) and a selection of desserts (dolci) – sometimes just ice cream or macedonia (fresh fruit salad), but often home-made items, like apple or pear cake (torta di mela/pera), tiramisù, or zuppa inglese (trifle). Cheeses (formaggi) are always worth a shot if you have any room left; ask to try a selection of local varieties.
You will need quite an appetite to tackle all these courses and if your stomach — or wallet — isn’t up to it, it’s perfectly acceptable to have less. If you’re not sure of the size of the portions, start with a pasta or rice dish and ask to order the secondo when you’ve finished the first course. And, although it’s not a very Italian thing to do, don’t feel shy about just having an antipasto and a primo; they’re probably the best way of trying local specialities anyway.
At the end of the meal ask for the bill (il conto); bear in mind that almost everywhere you’ll pay a cover charge (coperto) of €1.50–3 a head. In many trattorias the bill amounts to little more than an illegible scrap of paper; if you want to check it, ask for a receipt (ricevuta). In more expensive places, service (servizio) will often be added on top of the cover charge, generally about ten percent; if it isn’t, leave what you feel is appropriate for the service you received – up to ten percent.
Breakfast
Most Italians start their day in a bar, their breakfast (prima colazione) consisting of a coffee and a brioche or cornetto – a croissant often filled with jam, custard or chocolate, which you usually help yourself to from the counter and eat standing at the bar. It will cost between €1.30 and €1.60; note that it will cost more if you sit down (see “Where to drink”). Breakfast in a hotel is all too often a limp affair of watery coffee, bread and processed meats, often not worth the price.
Pizza and snacks
Pizza is a worldwide phenomenon, but Italy remains the best place to eat it. Here pizza usually comes thin and flat, not deep-pan, and the choice of toppings is fairly limited, with none of the dubious pineapple and sweetcorn variations. For a quality pizza opt for somewhere with a wood-fired oven (forno a legna) rather than a squeaky-clean electric one, so that the pizzas arrive blasted and bubbling on the surface and with a distinctive charcoal taste. This adherence to tradition means that it’s unusual to find a good pizzeria open at lunchtime; it takes hours for a wood-fired oven to heat up to the necessary temperature.
Pizzerias range from a stand-up counter selling slices (pizza al taglio) to a fully fledged sit-down restaurant, and on the whole they don’t sell much else besides pizza, soft drinks and beer. A basic cheese and tomato margherita can cost from €3.50 to €6, depending on how fancy the pizzeria is. More elaborate pizzas will cost from around €6–10, and it’s quite acceptable to cut it into slices and eat it with your fingers. Consult our food glossary for the different varieties.
For a lunchtime snack sandwiches (panini) can be pretty substantial, a bread stick or roll packed with any number of fillings. A sandwich bar (paninoteca) in larger towns and cities, and in smaller places a grocer’s shop (alimentari), will normally make you up whatever you want. Bars, particularly in the north, may also offer tramezzini, ready-made sliced white bread with mixed fillings.
Other sources of quick snacks are markets, where fresh, flavoursome produce is sold, often including cheese, cold meats, warm spit-roast chicken, and arancini, deep-fried balls of rice with meat (rosso) or butter and cheese (bianco) filling. Bread shops (panetteria) often serve slices of pizza or focaccia (bread with oil and salt topped with rosemary, olives or tomato). Supermarkets, also, are an obvious stop for a picnic lunch: larger branches are on the outskirts of cities, while smaller supermarkets can be found in town centres.
Vegetarians and vegans
The quality of fruit and vegetables in Italy is excellent, with local, seasonal produce available throughout the country. There are numerous pasta sauces without meat, some superb vegetable antipasti and, if you eat fish and seafood, you should have no problem at all. Salads, too, are fresh and good. Outside the cities and resorts, you might be wise to check if a dish has meat in it (C’è carne dentro?) or ask for it “senza carne e pesce” to make sure it doesn’t contain poultry or prosciutto.
Vegans will have a much harder time, though pizzas without cheese (marinara – nothing to do with fish – is a common option) are a good stand-by and vegetable soup (minestrone) is usually just that.