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The basics of Italian cuisine
Cuisine is absolutely a very important aspect of Italian culture. Italian food is highly famed: greatly loved and tirelessly imitated the world over, it has been a source of endless pleasure and joie-de-vivre in countries far and wide.
In spite of regional differences, Italian food in general is often characterized as being flexible and innovative, building itself on a model of theme and variation. First-time travelers to Italy may be surprised on finding such a diversity of regional food. Unlike your typical Italian restaurant in the States, Italian food has much more variety than spaghetti and meatballs or Eggplant Parmesan. Even though you can find Italian specialties like pizza and tortellini all over Italy, it is well worth sampling the local dishes for a bit of authenticity. When eating foods grown or raised in the surrounding countryside and complemented with the local wine, both your Traveling and eating experiences are taken to a whole new level. The pride that Italians have in their locally grown produce, regional specialties and exceptional wine is something you cannot find in a supermarket.
Italian cooking contains great variety of marvellous single pasta dishes made with all types of vegetables and pulses. These are also the principal ingredients for many local specialities though countless types of meat dishes abound, as well as fine fish from the plentiful seas around the peninsula, fragrant cheeses and exceptional desserts. But the undisputed star of Italian dining is the famous 'first course', in all its many varieties, including pasta 'dry' or in broth, soups, many kinds of noodle soups and minestrones, risottos and timbales. Italian cookery is exceptionally varied, nutritious and healthy; traditions have been handed down from one family to the next over the centuries, and are associated mainly with country life in that dishes are directly linked to what the Earth produces over the changing seasons: in other words, wholesome cooking whose goodness depends on all-natural ingredients.
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