It so happened that the cuisine of the famous "boot" is popular and successful far beyond the borders of the European continent. What is the secret of this success? Probably the fact that Italians use a wide list of ingredients for cooking, and most of them grow on this sunny land.
Of course, French sophistication is far away, but Italian cuisine has a trump card: the products used for the dish depend on the season. Italian women, going to the market, do not make a list of products, since they do not know what they will buy, and even more so they do not know what dish will be prepared for dinner.
The formation of the cuisine was carried out over several centuries, and neighboring states played an important role in this process. The state of Italy appeared on the European map only 100 years ago, and thanks to this it was able to absorb all the best culinary delights of the Sicilian, Ligurian, Neapolitan and Milanese cuisines. Today, Italian cuisine is conventionally divided into northern and southern cuisine. They differ only in the used seasonings. In a word, the same dish, prepared in a northern or southern manner, can differ significantly in taste due to its spices.
Any meal begins with the serving of snacks - in Italy they are called antipasti. For example, as the main snack on the table, there may be pieces of chicken leg with a very strange and at first glance incompatible side dish in the form of melons or peaches. Appetizers are replaced by salads. There is one unspoken rule here: a minimum of vinegar and a maximum of oil and salt. And only after the salads appear on the table, the first course is served - soup, pasta or risotto. Most often, Italians will have pasta as the main dish on the table, since without it the table is considered empty and boring.
After serving the first course, get ready for another culinary delight in the form of dolci or, in simple words, dessert. Mostly tiramisu is served, less often lemon cake or rum sponge cake, and you will also be offered an incredible amount of ice cream. Tea in Italy is treated coolly, so coffee is usually brought after dessert. They prefer to drink cappuccino for breakfast and espresso in the afternoon. Although the latter is so loved by Italians that they drink it around the clock.
National Italian cuisine is not only one of the best in the world, but also the most fashionable. However, this is not surprising, because such a number of ingredients used in one dish cannot be found even in refined French cuisine.
