Introduction to Italian Food

Originally pizza, pasta, macaroni are from Italy. Pizza originally came from Naples (Napoli) near Rome in approx 1860. Parmesan cheese came from Parma.

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Italian food is one of the oldest in the world. Dishes are copies of ones given to Roman Soldiers. Olive oil and wine are mediterranean.

Bologna is famous for minced meat sauce known as bolognese. Rice is common in Northern Italy due to the wet valleys.  Sardinia and Sicily are known well for fish dishes.

Pasta should be cooked ‘al dente’ which means ‘to the teeth’.  A little hard in the centre.

There are lots of different pasta shapes and types for use with meals e.g. ravioli, tortellini, spirali, farfalle, penne. Some hold the meat and sauce better than others.

Desserts

Grapes, apricots, peaches, lemons, oranges are grown.  Amaretti (almond flavoured meringues) are popular, Panforte is sweetbread. Pannettone (Tony’s bread) eaten at Christmas time is rich bread cake.

Children helping make their own dishes

Most children love to help out in the kitchen especially as once they’ve made their food they can eat it.

A good idea is to make your own pizza topping. Kids can put on anything they fancy e.g. ham, cheese, pineapple, and its so quick to cook.

Pasta is another easy, cheap food to make with kids they could help mix the sauce and put it altogether into the pasta at the end.