13 recipes
A beloved cuisine that creates great flavour from few, high-quality ingredients, where every region takes pride in its own pasta, risotto and more.
Read its storyThe real Roman carbonara, with no cream: just egg, cheese, black pepper and crisp cured pork, tossed into a silky sauce.
A classic Italian mushroom risotto made creamy by adding hot stock a ladle at a time, finished with butter and Parmesan.
A no-bake Italian dessert of coffee-soaked ladyfingers layered with a light mascarpone and egg cream.
The classic baked lasagne of Bologna, layering slow-simmered ragù, silky béchamel and Parmesan between sheets of pasta.
The classic Neapolitan pizza of tomato, mozzarella and fresh basil, made with homemade dough and adapted for a home oven.
Bright green Genoese pesto of fresh basil, pine nuts, garlic, cheese and olive oil tossed with trofie or linguine for a quick, fragrant pasta.
A hearty Italian vegetable soup with beans and small pasta, made a little differently in every home and every season.
A simple, elegant northern Italian dessert of vanilla cream gently set with gelatin until it trembles on the spoon.
Fried eggplant slices layered with tomato sauce, mozzarella and Parmesan and baked until bubbling, southern Italy's best-loved vegetable bake.
A Roman classic of just pasta, Pecorino and black pepper, turned into a creamy sauce with starchy pasta water: simple, but it takes a little technique.
A soft Genoese flatbread with a golden, olive-oil-rich top, its dimples filled with a salty brine that keeps it moist.
Toasted country bread rubbed with garlic and topped with fresh tomatoes, basil and olive oil, the easiest Italian starter of summer.
Sicily's famous crisp rice balls: saffron risotto filled with a beef and pea ragù or with mozzarella, breadcrumbed and fried.
Italian cooking reaches back to the Etruscans and ancient Rome. The Romans put olive oil, wine, bread and cheese at the centre of the table, and the cookbook attributed to Apicius is an important source on lavish Roman dining. In the Middle Ages, the Arabs who ruled Sicily are traditionally credited with bringing citrus, sugar, almonds and possibly dried pasta production to the island, though the origins of pasta remain debated, and the story that Marco Polo brought it from China is a myth.
Tomatoes reached Europe from the Americas in the 16th century but took time to win over Italian cooks; pasta with tomato sauce became widespread mainly in the 18th and 19th centuries. When Italy unified in 1861, it had not one cuisine but many very different regional ones. Pellegrino Artusi's cookbook, published in 1891, gathered recipes from across the regions and helped shape the idea of a shared Italian cuisine.
Every Italian region is proud of its own cooking. The north favours butter, rice (risotto), cornmeal (polenta) and fresh egg pasta; Emilia-Romagna is famous for Parmigiano Reggiano and lasagne. In central Italy, Rome is known for simple pasta dishes such as carbonara and cacio e pepe. The south leans on olive oil, tomatoes, dried pasta and seafood; Naples is the home of pizza, and Sicily of sweets that still show Arab influence.
Good olive oil, ripe tomatoes, garlic, basil, cheeses such as Parmesan and pecorino, and quality pasta are the foundations. The guiding principle is simplicity: a few excellent ingredients brought together with the right technique. Cooking pasta al dente, using starchy pasta water to bind a sauce and stirring risotto patiently are core skills worth learning.
Spaghetti aglio e olio (garlic and olive oil spaghetti) and a simple tomato sauce pasta