What foods are important to the Italian culture?!

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Here are some tips about the Italy food culture and dining with Italian:

* Nobody eats until everyone is seated, unless the person who is serving insists.

* Salad is usually eaten last

* There will 99% of the time be two or more courses: pasta and a meat or fish dish and vegetables, followed by breads, cold meats and fruits.

* Different courses are always served on clean crockery. Italians, unlike Americans, English, Australians etc. don't put different courses all together on the same dish.

* There is usually a fruit and or a cheese at the end of a meal

* You don't drink milk with your meal, unless you are a child.

* There is almost always red wine at the luch/dinner table.

* No grated cheese on a pasta dish with sea food!

* Fork is in the left hand, knife in right and you don't switch after cutting something.

* You don't hold the fork like a baseball bat.

* Television is off when eating

* No bread is eaten with the pasta, and if you absolutely have to clean your plate with bread then break off a piece of bread and stab it with your fork and use the fork to wipe the plate.

* And break off pieces of bread by hand and put them in your mouth, don't bring the whole piece to your mouth to bite off a piece.

Spiacente me nessun italiano
GH************************************…

hi, i'm italian :) sorry for any mistakes, but i don't know english very well
1) we eat pasta A LOT, almost every day, with different condiments. but our menu is varied, so there are meat, fish, vegetable and fruits. we also eat pizza (I eat it once a week). But remember that each region has its own food. for exemple in the north people eats more polenta or soup, while in the south there are more fruits, vegetable.fish and meat are everywhere..to change are the ingredients and recipes..
2)..mm...nothing, i guess o_o can you give some examples?
3) uhm..no one prays before eating...religious traditions are disappearing, and i'm atheist, so i can't help you, sorry
4) here dependig on the location too. most famous italian food are "torrone" "panettone" and "pandoro" in christmas, and "colomba" in easter, but there are many other!!! i live in Puglia e here we cook "pettole" and "cartellate" for Christmas, "chiacchiere" for Carnevil and "ciucciarelli" (or "scarcelle") for Easter.
5)I don't understand the first question. however we don't have a lot of fast food here. just mcdonald's, burger king and the italian Spizzico, but only in big cities and shopping malls. for a quick meal we go to the bakary and we eat a piece of focaccia, pizza or sandwich.

i'm italian :)

Ciao,
I am not Italian but I like Italian food a lot. I lived in Austria just 45 kilometers from Italy so we made a lot of day trips there. I can only answer a few questions.
1. Pasta! It is usually eaten as an appetizer to say before the main meal. Olives and Olive oil is very important. It is in nearly everything they cook there. Pane= bread also very important. The important foods are also regional, coastal areas fish is a main staple eg.
2-3-4 I do not know if anything is avoided. During lent the Catholics may avoid meat or sweets during the fasting time.
5. Food is stored like in north America. There are some meats and cheeses that are stored cool/room temp. because they are cured/smoked. Like Parmesan, salami and prosciutto(Ham). There are Mcdonalds and the younger generation likes to go there. Some Italians see that type of food as a joke or an insult to there century old food culture. They do have there "fast food", they serve pizza and sandwiches at stands or small shops (bar)
Hope that helped a little.
You have to see and taste Italy in your life time!

1) pasta and pizza are nationwide on top on both habits and by cultural point of view; especially in northern Italy rice is also important (Italy is the largest rice producer in Europe), while in northern only polenta (based on maiz) is a strong part of traditional cuisine; apples in the norths and ornages and lemons in south; about sweetnesses, panettone and pandoro came from northern Italy but today are a nationwide tradition during christmas, like "colomba" (a dove-shaped sort of cake) during Easter, like also "bugie" or "chiacchiere" or "frappe" (always the same sweetness, named differently according to the region).
Gianduja is a unique chocolate from Piedmont, based on nuts and cocoa, which was also the basis for Nutella, the spread which in Italy is the most important Religion, along with football and Ferrari.
Olive oil also play a big role in Italian traditions. Parmigiamo reggaino, grana padano, mozzarella are the most important Italian cheese, but also toma and fontina. Ricotta is very important, though technically is not a cheese.
Drinks: wine is very important in Italian culture, but the national drink is considered coffee.
Cappuccino and brioche (especially "cornetto") is the typical breakfast, though definitely not the only one.
2) except some foods which are avoided by western Countries in general, I can say usually Italians don't like Americanaized Italian food (pizza and pasta in Italy are really different than in the US), you can't (or harldy) find "pepperoni pizza" or "chicken pizza" in Italy.
3 - 4) religion does not affect at all Italian habits about food; some traditional practises are comparable to eating turkey during Thanksgiving day in the US: so "zampone" or "cotechino" with lentils on new years eve, lamb during Easter (and panettone, pandoro and colomba).
BTW: "religion" is not important, but "regions" are: cookery is strongly region-based, so there's a wide variety of local habits, in addition to national ones.
5) an American refrigerator in Italy (well, in Europe) is considered "oversized": frozen foods are used, but fresh ingredients are preferred by large. A typical meal include first courses (pasta, rice, but also gnocchi or polenta) a second course (often meal or fish, but not necessarily) and fruit OR dessert (not both); "contorno" (side dish) is also common (usually salad or glilled vegetables or slice of various kind of salami, often ham). Be aware some dishes are considered a "piatto unico", a "one single dish" NOT supposed to be followed by a second course or even a contorno: some typical "piatti unici" are pizza, lasagna, often risotto and polenta.
"Antipasto" (appetizers) is in use but not so common like thought outside of the Country.
Coffee is the common way to end a meal.
There are near 60 McDonalds and 10 or 12 Burger's King in Italy, but fast food is not in Italian genes.
"Pizza al trancio" is the only remarkable food close to fast food that always been popular in Italy.
6) a bottle of wine (especially red) is always on an Italian lunch or dinner table; a "moka" (coffe maker) is something you can find in virtually every Italian home.
As opposed to "fast food", a "slow food" culture begun in Italy near 10-12 years ago (more specifically in Piedmont) and spreaded around the globe. An important international exhibit is hold every year in the Region.

I'm Italian, living in Italy

Hi,
you're lucky! I'm a sixteen years old girls who lives in Milan and I was here on yahoo answer of US for curiosity. Well, now I can help you with your questions:
1. What foods are important to the Italian Culture?
Absolutely:
1 spaghetti alla carbonara
2 cotoletta alla milanese
3 obviously pizza
4 cappelletti in brodo
5 lasagne (quite important)
2. What foods are avoided by the Italian Culture?
3. Do Italian's have specific food practices? For example, How does religion affect what you eat? Italy is a laic state, but mainly catholic, but it doesn't have any proibition of food. Religion doesn not influence us in any way. Well many families, also mine, at Christmas and New years'eve eat Lasagne, Lenticchie e cotechino http://www.google.it/imgres?imgurl=http:… and also cappelletti in brodo. It is also a tradition eating Capretto http://www.google.it/imgres?imgurl=http:…
4. What are your holiday foods? I didn't saw this question before, I've already answer it just above
5. Is food stored or served differently? Are there a lot of fast food restaurants in Italy? And are they used frequently? Italian ppl don't use a lot stored food, we like to cook. I've been, i think 3 times, in the states and i can absolutely say that here in italy we don't have so much fast food! Not that much as in the US. Here there are more restaurants than fast food, actually is near to rare find a fast food.
6. What else is unique about the Italian culture in relation to food that was not addressed above? Well, there's not much more to say, all i can remember now i've already told you!

Bye bye and good luck with your homework!!

ps: I'm really sorry for not putting the link of all the foods I've said, but before i did but answer didn't let me submit the answer 'cause it was to long...bye!

I've been living in northern Italy for over 11 years and can give you my perspective on some of these questions. One thing that you need to consider is that every region/town has it's own specialties.

1. Obvious things like pasta and pizza. In the area where I live, pork is important. The town where I live has a pork festival in December dedicated to all the uses of pork and pork products. In the area around Florence, you see more beef than here - Fiorentina is justifiably a well known dish. In Mantova, one of the specialties is a horse or donkey dish with polenta. Various regions have their own wines based on growing conditions. Other products that are significant in the area where I live include balsamic vinegar and parmigiano reggiano cheese. Other areas feature cheeses such as pecorino, talegio or others ... and of course truffles are important.

2. I'm not aware of any foods that are specifically culturally avoided. Of course, individuals each have their own likes and dislikes.

3. The country is predominantly Catholic although not so many people are active on a weekly basis. You still see a lot of fish being served on Fridays which I believe is a religious remnant. We commonly go out for spaghetti col tonno at lunch on Fridays where I work.

4. There are things like Pandoro, Pannetone, Columba (easter sweet bread shaped like a dove). Again, various regions have their own holiday specialties. Where I live, it is traditional to have cotechino or zampone and lentils for New Year's. see: http://english.holidaysblog.it/tag/chris… Supposedly, these were originated in the town where I live to take advantage of what was available when the town was under siege by the army of the Pope.

5. Not really. Meals here can be quite long when dishes are prepared in the traditional ways. There are fast food places like McDonalds and Burger King. You can also get panini in bars or pizza by the slice in some places. Doner kebabs are also available in many towns. There are not as many fast food places here as in the US though.

6. There are a huge number of food festivals here featuring the local specialties. In addition, the slow food movement was started here as a reactioon to the spread of fast food. This promotes traditional foods prepared in traditional ways. There are agriturismos in old farm houses that get a tax break for operating restaurants a few days a week featuring locally produced products.