Cooking World

Italian food, mainly, is simple food. Each area in Italy has its food traditions, and almost all of them come from what has been available in that region traditionally. In the agriculturally rich North, for example, the pasta is made with rich egg yolks and the sauces necessarily include butter. In the droughty South, pasta is made with water, and is therefore harder to chew; they make stronger sauces, using more tomatoes and olive oil.
The tradition of working with fresh pastas, and fresh seafood and vegetables allows the Italian dishes to focus on flavorful ingredients rather than complex techniques. With some of these simple, old ideas, you can make genuine Italian dishes a tasty part of your everyday cooking.
Marcella Hazan, cookbook author, has said: “”Italian food is the food that is easiest to live with”.
In cooking of Italian meal, according to Marcella Hazan, a guru of Italian meal in US, there is no “main course,” but a succession of small courses that complement each another. The first course, is usually pasta, risotto or soup. The second course is usually a meat or fish dish served with vegetables. The meal is finished off with a light green salad, and then fruit or sweets.