Italian Cuisine

Okay, I could go on and on forever about how amazing the food is here in Italy, but for now I'll just highlight a few of my favorite parts about eating here, like shopping for food, cooking it, and dining according to Italian customs.

The Markets
Italians are really, really, really into fresh food. In the states, sometimes produce is more expensive to buy than prepackaged food, but it's exactly the opposite here, because the merchandise at the open air markets turns over every day, meaning there's no cost to store produce for the vendors and no cost for preservatives. So for things like meat, cheese and vegetables, Italians go to the market nearly every day and buy only what they need. There's one just a few blocks from my apartment, and it's huge. We went there yesterday morning to pick up a few things for some pasta recipes that one of our professors gave us. I still haven't started class yet and haven't learned very much Italian at all, so there was a lot of pointing and gesturing going on between me and the vendors!

Alimentari
An alimentari is like what we would call a mini-mart, except it has a fresh deli counter. We've found that these are great places to eat lunch, because the deli counter will make paninos, or sandwiches on rolls, with anything you want. Yesterday, I tried one with salami, mozzarella, and pesto... it was delicious! So I got the ingredients to make one for myself at home. The best part is that you can usually get one made for one or two euro, which is pretty cheap. An alimentari will also sell basic things like bread, milk, juice, etc.

Aperitivo and Dinner

An aperitivo plate. This was the second course!

Italians eat dinner late, like around 8 or 9, but they have something called aperitivo that starts earlier in the evening (usually around 6:30) and runs until dinner. It started in northern Italy and is super popular in places like Milan, but it's getting really popular in the evening too. The best way to describe it would be like a happy hour with unlimited food. So you go to these places, order one drink and get unlimited "appetizers." It usually costs around 9 or 10 euro, and the servers will keep refilling your food plates until you tell them to stop. One portion was more than enough for us, and we had to remember that most people who go for aperitivo actually go out and eat an entire meal for dinner afterward. It was so much food and it was all delicious! They started us off with a plate of warm, seasoned cheese, and then they brought the platter of aperitivo snacks. At this place, we got a lot of mini sandwiches, some mini pizza, and rice balls with vegetables inside (called arancini... these are a big snack food!). More and more places are starting to serve aperitivo and offer specials like it, so we are definitely looking forward to exploring more places!

Cooking
Temple provided a cooking demonstration for us the other night, and the professor who led it gave us pamphlets of his favorite recipes that we should try while we are here. I got ingredients to make an asparagus sauce with tagliatelle noodles (not realizing, of course, that asparagus isn't in season and so was actually one of the most expensive things at the market yesterday), so I think I'll try that tonight. There's enough in there to keep me busy for the whole semester, so I can't wait to experiment with that.