What to Eat in Italy: Typical Italian Food and Specialties | Page 2 of 6
Montanara: Fried Neapolitan Pizza
A fried pizza from Naples that supposedly owes its name to a mountain man's lunch: instead of being baked, montanara goes into hot oil and gets dressed only once it comes out. In the film The Gold of Naples it was even sold on credit. In Matera they now serve it in gourmet versions - from mortadella with pistachios to an anchovy on yellow tomato pesto.
Pane di Matera: Semolina Bread from Basilicata
Pane di Matera is a sourdough bread made from durum wheat semolina, baked in Matera and the surrounding area in Basilicata, southern Italy. The big knobbly loaf, with a crust at least three millimeters thick and a yellow, airy crumb, stays fresh for a whole week and has carried the protected IGP mark since 2008. The three cuts across the top of the loaf mean something older than the guidebooks claim.
Schiuma Pastry Shop: Four Generations of Pastry Chefs in Matera
The Schiuma pastry shop sits a few steps from Matera's main promenade. The same family has stood behind its counter since 1946 - today the fourth generation. The surname Schiuma is Italian for foam, which by pure coincidence matches one of the shop's specialties, whipped mascarpone. And they fry Neapolitan zeppole here for more than just St. Joseph's Day.
Fratelli De Palo Bakery: Panzerotti and Pizza in Matera
In Matera you can sit down to a full lunch at the bakery: pizza by the slice, panzerotti fried in breadcrumbs, arancini. And Fratelli De Palo is one of the four historic bakeries brought together by the consortium behind the protected Pane di Matera. It's a long way from the Sassi, but practically on the way for anyone arriving by bus from Bari.
Pane di Altamura: The Bread with a DOP Stamp
The oldest review of Altamura's bread comes from Horace - and it never names the town, because the name wouldn't fit the verse. Pane di Altamura, a sourdough loaf made from semolina, became the first bread in Europe to earn DOP protected designation of origin status, back in 2003. Plus stamps with family initials, a salad made from stale bread, and a stop at the Di Gesù bakery that needed no words.
Costoluto: The Ribbed Italian Tomato
Next to the smooth supermarket tomatoes, costoluto looks like a mistake: creased into deep ridges and half green. Yet it's an old Italian salad classic - a whole family of regional varieties from Piedmont to Sicily. I'll explain why the ribbed tomato is sold green on purpose and how it differs from the oxheart tomato.
Pani Cunzatu: The Bread of Shame
It looks like a pizza, but don't expect one: pani cunzatu is a halved loaf of Sicilian bread, drizzled with olive oil while still hot and piled with tomatoes, anchovies and pepato cheese. They call it the bread of shame - it used to be the food of people who couldn't afford anything better. Today Sicilians line up for it.
Pizza Secca: The Dry Pizza from Catania's Bakeries
Pizza secca is Catania's "dry pizza": a sheet of dough rolled out to a few millimeters, brushed with tomato paste, oil and oregano and baked until crisp. The bakeries of Catania sell it cold and by weight, and nowhere else in Sicily will you find it. This piece explains why a dry flatbread is called pizza, how it differs from sfincione and where I bought mine.
Pizzeria Timilia: Pizza from an Ancient Wheat in Palermo
Pizzeria Timilia on Palermo's via Maqueda takes its name not from a family but from tumminia, an ancient Sicilian wheat that goes into every dough the place mixes. What it bakes is pizza in teglia: in a tray, sold by the piece and by weight, warmed through just before it reaches you. What that format is, where it came from, and what the two pieces I picked out of the display case cost.
Frutta Martorana: Sicilian Marzipan Fruit
Frutta martorana is Sicilian marzipan fruit and vegetables you can't tell from the real thing from a meter away. They're named after a Palermo convent whose nuns weren't allowed to make them, and on All Souls' Day dead relatives leave them for the children. What the almond paste is made of, why it's softer than the marzipan we know back home, and how to tell hand-painted from spray-painted.