Reo Veo 9
Top 10 Italian Foods & Meals That Arent Italian At All
Intro
Italians are more than a little sensitive about their food but,
honestly, who can blame them? Seemingly every culture continues to
misrepresent their noble Mediterranean cuisine with greasy,
sugar-laden, and highly processed poor substitutes, not to mention
the ridiculous Italian-ized labels that contain some of the worst
attempts at the language ever seen. You can cook, promote, and sell
whatever you want; just dont call it Italian when its clearly
not.
10 Italian Soda
10.Italian Soda
Italian soda is NOT found everywhere in Italy, as many
manufacturers claim on their websites. According to specialists and
their extensive research, the birth of United States coincided with
the introduction of soft drinks, a product already popular in the
US by the early 1800s. So why the Italy thing? It seems a couple
businessmen, Ezilda and Rinaldo Torre, introduced a variety of
syrups to North Beach around 1925, and pretended they were taken
from authentic, handwritten, Italian recipes. More than likely,
they were inspired by acqua e menta, an Italian summer drink
prepared by mixing mint syrup with still water. But thats not soda,
is it? Aranciata, gassosa, cedrata and chinotto are some of the
countrys signature soft drinks, so try those instead.
9 Italian Dressing
9. Italian Dressing
Italian salad dressings are incredibly popular in the United
States and Canada, but Italians have their own particular way of
seasoning a salad, a way nicely summed up by an old saying from
Alexandre Dumas, from one of the earliest and greatest works on
food ever published, the Grand Dictionnaire de Cuisine: a salad
dressing requires a spendthrift for oil, a judge for salt, a miser
for vinegar, and a madman to mix them. And we couldnt agree more.
Native Italians dont buy bottled dressings. The Mediterranean
gastronomical culture is all about fresh and healthy ingredients:
simple food, properly spiced, and cooked with passion and care. Why
add an arsenal of sugars, salts, fats, fake flavors, colors and
questionable ingredients, when its so easy to make your own
dressing? And if youre in Italy, but dont have access to a madman,
fret not: salads are often served unseasoned in Italy, but youll
always find olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper on the
table to prepare a mix that suits your personal taste.
8. Garlic Bread
8.Garlic Bread
French bread smeared with butter and sprinkled with garlic
powder, salt, and dried oregano or basil is not an Italian custom,
no matter how many marketers say otherwise. Garlic bread is simply
the American commercial version of bruschetta classica. To
celebrate the olive harvest, Italian farmers toast a chunky slide
of country-style bread over the fireplace, rub it with a clove of
garlic while its still hot, and then brush it with fresh olive oil
on both sides. A sprinkle of salt, and the bruschetta is ready!
Thats the classic recipe, but variations are abound: bruschetta al
pomodoro e basilico (with chopped tomatoes and fresh basil);
bruschetta ai peperoni (with peppers), bruschetta con melanzane
(with eggplants) and so on. All of which beat a frozen piece of
bread in a box by miles and miles
7. Pepperoni/Italian Chicken Pizza
7. Pepperoni/Italian Chicken Pizza
Italian chicken pizza and pepperoni pizza are two of the many
delicious varieties of pizza that you absolutely wont find in
Italy. You wont even find pepperoni there, as the word is simply
bastardized version of the Italian word peperoni (bell peppers).
Pepperoni (written with double ps) is an air-dried spicy sausage.
Order a pepperoni pizza in Italy, and youll most likely get a pizza
topped with sweet peppers. Pepperoni pizza, the way we know it, is
an American invention from 1919 or so, when Italian-American
restaurants, pizzerias, and butcher shops began to flourish in
America.
6. Pasta Primavera
6.Pasta Primavera
Despite its name, pasta primavera is not of Italian origin. The
dish was created in the early 1970s in Le Cirque NYC, one of the
top restaurants of the international haute cuisine scene. It all
started in 1973 when Sirio Maccioni, founder of Le Cirque, and Jean
Vernges, a classically trained French Chef and co-founder of Le
Cirque, visited artist Edward Giobbi, and was intrigued by his
mixture of vegetables and pasta. Vergnes discussed the concept with
fellow French chef Jean Louis. Vergnes wish was to use fresh
veggies like asparagus, zucchini, mushrooms, tomatoes, and string
beans.
5.Caesar Salad
5.Caesar Salad
An ongoing debate surrounds this delicious salad. One thing is
for sure, it isnt Italian. Most culinary historians credit Caesar
Cardini with the authentic version. Caesar Cardini and his brother
Alessandro moved from Milan to San Diego after World War I, and
decided to open a restaurant in Tijuana, Mexico. Their signature
Parmesan-and-crouton-based salad soon became very fashionable among
Hollywood celebrities, and somehow earned a reputation for being an
authentic Italian dish.
4.Chicken Parmesan
4.Chicken Parmesan
Chicken Parmesan, despite the very Italian name, is as American
as the hot dog. Theres no authentic Italian recipe for combining
pasta with chicken, and the two are always served as different
courses. In fact, up until recent rises in poultry production,
chicken meat was rarely eaten in Italy. According to a 1956 record
from the Italian National Union of Agriculture, the average Italian
ate less than 5 pounds of poultry per year at the time
3.Macaroni & Cheese
3.Macaroni&Cheese
Establishing the origin of this dish is more complicated than it
seems. Its a delicious plate, but it isnt Italian. Bechamel, the
mother of all white sauces and one of the mainstays of French
cuisine, is the base of the classic mac & cheese recipe. Some
claim that maccheroni, prepared with various sauces, was a very
popular dish in Paris during the 18th century. Last we checked,
France is not Italy.
2.Fettuccine Alfredo
2.Fettuccine Alfredo
If you are planning to visit Italy, and cant wait to eat the
famous Fettuccine Alfredo, Im afraid I have some bad news for you.
Fettuccine Alfredo, Shrimp Alfredo, Chicken Alfredo, or any other
dish named after Alfredo di Lelio doesnt exist anywhere in Italy,
except for one place in Rome that Italians dont actually like. It
all began there, almost one hundred years ago, at a restaurant
owned by Alfredo di Lelio, whose wife experienced some problems
during pregnancy, including loss of appetite. Remember when your
mom gave you chicken soup or toast when you had an upset stomach?
Well, Italians eat plain pasta with a little bit of butter and
Parmesan when they cant keep anything down. Its that same remedy
that worked also for Alfredos wife.
And Lastly......
1.Spaghetti Bolognese
1. Spaghetti Bolognese
Theres nothing Italian about this dish, and nothing Bolognese
either. The pasta and the classic sauce come from two completely
different cultures. Emilia Romagna, a food lovers paradise, is a
region of Northern Italy. Its capital is Bologna. The Bolognese
sauce (rag alla Bolognese) is a typical Emilian dish, but spaghetti
was a southern Italian staple. Emilians actually serve rag with
tagliatelle, the regions signature pasta. Combining these two in a
single dish, though apparently quite marketable, is a big no-no.
Why? Because spaghetti is too thin to hold the rich sauce.
Spaghetti Bolognese, the Frankenstein dish we know today, is not
even served with the classic Bolognese sauce, but rather some
watered-down version thats easier for spaghetti to handle. The most
authentic sauce recipe is the one documented by the Accademia
Italiana della Cucina, and subsequently recorded by Bolognas
Chamber of Commerce. The official recipe limits the ingredients to
beef, pancetta, carrots, celery stalks, onions, tomato paste, white
wine and milk.
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