032: Traditional Italian food - what NOT to do when it comes to Italian food in Italy - Living Villa Cappelli (2024)

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There are a lot of "rules" when it comes to traditional Italian food. And what you might think would be the same for Italian food in the United States can be very different from what you find in Italy. Here are 14 things you should never do when cooking or eating in Italy.

Note: We're basing our conversation heavily on this original blog post:

Topics we cover:

• • Firstly, our new sponsor Audible.com. Sign up and get a free book AND a free 30-day trial membership. Just go towww.audiletrial.com/cappelli
  • The differences between jam and preserves
  • And more about Colpo D'Aria (which I talked about in this episode):https://livingvillacappelli.com/030-italian-cures-for-the-common-cold-fact-v-fiction/

Now for the all-important "don'ts" when it comes to traditional Italian food in Italy.

1. Do not add oil to pasta water

Paul and I agree on this. It is absolutely not necessary. While your pasta needs salt to give it flavor, the oil is of no use during cooking. It will help as a sauce afterwards, and perhaps a bit as a non-stick sauce, although you should toss the pasta with the sauce immediately after removing it from the boiling water.

Stir your pasta occasionally as it cooks and everything will be fine. Be sure to stir spaghetti and other fine pasta immediately when you add the water to avoid creating a big blob of spaghetti.

And make sure there is enough water in the pan so that the pasta can move.

Paul believes that you should add the salt after the water has boiled. Steven doesn't necessarily agree with that. Find out why.

2. Never mix cheese and seafood

This is another value for money, with the exception of one important recipe shown below. Never add grated cheese to a seafood pasta dish. The restaurant will give you grated cheese if you ask for it, but they will look at you like a barbaric tourist.

The one I'm pointing out is the Mussels Genovese. The recipe below. NOTE: This is the name people here in our region of Puglia call this recipe. I'm sure every region is different.

As Paul notes, this is essentially the same as making a frittata, but it still breaks the rule.

Adding cheese to pasta is a habit we've all formed because we want to add cheese to pasta before we even taste it. But in this case, the cheese simply drowns out the flavor of the most delicate seafood, and Paul says it's just not "kosher."

There are other exceptions here, but as Paul points out, they're really not Italian dishes. Do you know of an exception that we missed? Tell us in the comments!

3. Do not top the pasta with chicken

This one is absolutely right. The dishes you see at the big Italian restaurants are considered Italian, well, they're not very Italian.

We couldn't think of a single pasta dish that even contained chicken. Actually, Italians in general are not very fond of chicken.

And besides, there's no such thing as chicken parmesan or chicken parmigiana here. It does not exist.

4. Don't serve bread and butter

Very true. In the North they may cook with butter, but they don't really do bread and butter.

Bread is placed at the table, so that you can function as one wholeschoen— the shoe — to scoop up or wipe away any leftovers on your plate. So don't eat all the bread before your meal is served!

And as we've said before: you don't have to dip your bread in extra virgin olive oil here. Just wait until you get home and enjoy some of our oil with delicious crusty bread.

5. Bestel geen 'Spaghetti Bolognese' of 'Fettuccine Alfredo'

Well, you can find them in tourist places, like Rome and Milan, where Italian-American dishes are prepared for the tourist, but they are not traditional Italian dishes.

To be honest, I didn't know this about Spaghetti Bolognese. And maybe I'm still too American, but I don't see a problem with that. There are certain pastas that go with certain sauces because they carry the sauce better, but in this case I think everything is fine.

Traditionally the blogger said that tagliatelle is served with bolognese, but I have always made rigatoni (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rigatoni). I like how the thick, meaty sauce can be more locked into the pasta.

And we agree that Fettuccine Alfredo, the most famous "Italian" dish in the US, is largely unknown in Italy. In the words of Madeline Kahn, “It's trew. It's trew.”

6. Never order or eat spaghetti with meatballs

This combination simply does not exist in Italian cuisine in Italy.

You can find meatballs in a pasta forno or a ragu, but it is not something you serve with spaghetti. Ever.

Oh, and here we mention Paul's mother's Ragu recipe. You can find it here:https://livingvillacappelli.com/connie-cappellis-ragu/

7. Don't put ketchup on pasta. Never. Ever.

This happened to us when we visited Sweden. I still can't believe it happened.

Who does this? If YOU do, please leave a comment below, but beware of our wrath!

Oh, and here's a link to our sun-dried tomato spread we're talking about:http://villacappelli.com/collections/antipasta-aka-appetizers-1/products/zongedroogde-tomatenspread

8. Don't treat pasta as a side dish

Pasta is oneprimo(starter after antipasti) or MAYBE a main course, but it is never just a side dish.

The major restaurant of the Italian food chain in the United States serves pasta as a side dish if you order something other than pasta as a main course. At least, that's what it used to be. I haven't been there in over twenty years.

Paul also talks about how we eat things separately here in Italy. Usually you only have one part of your meal on your plate at a time.

I grew up never letting food on my plate be touched and only eating one thing at a time. So I ate my meat, then my green beans, then my mashed potatoes. And they couldn't touch each other! Maybe I really am Italian.

Paul also tells about other guests we had who mixed their salad with pasta. Enough has been said about that.

9. Don't drink a cappuccino at any time except during breakfast

We've talked about this before. Italians simply find milk too heavy to drink after a meal. It doesn't help your digestion.

Now it's a whole meal in itself for breakfast. Especially in the north.

10. Never miss the tradition

'Nonna knows best. She learned the recipes from her nonna, who learned from her nonna, who learned from her nonna, and so on.”

This might as well be written in stone.

11. Don't use real balsamic vinegar in your salads

We talked about this in more detail in the previous episode:https://livingvillacappelli.com/031-why-your-italian-food-is-probably-not-real-food/

Also view our balsamic vinegar here:http://villacappelli.com/collections/italian-conserves/products/8-year-aged-balsamic-vinegar

12. Don't make or eat pizza with a thick crust

Thick crust pizza is actually more of a focaccia.

Here the pizza is more of a combination of thin dough, tomato sauce, cheese and toppings. It's not just about the bread. And you really taste every ingredient.

Most pizza places in the United States are there to fill you up with lots of bread because it's cheaper than toppings.

Here is our pizza crust recipe. Try it and discover the difference.

13. Don't eat your salad BEFORE a meal

The salad, and the roughage you find in the salad, helps you digest after a hearty meal.

Italy is all about digestion and this is no exception. You won't even find many places where you get a salad with your meal.

14. Do not put any dressing on your salad other than extra virgin olive oil and vinegar

Farm. Thousand Islands, French. You just can't find it here.

This probably has to do with the fact that you eat the salad at the end of the meal. Adding lots of heavy dairy products or sugar after eating a big meal would only fill you up, with the vinegar almost acting as a pallet cleanser.

What do you think? Have we missed something when it comes to traditional Italian food? Let us know in the comments or leave a voicemail.