5 Essential Ingredients of the Traditional Italian Cuisine

Italian is one of the most popular cuisines among Americans. And why not, it truly has everything that a foodie can expect from food. From taste to presentation, Italian cuisine satisfies all the senses of the human body and that too with perfection. If you visit a modern Italian restaurant in New York that serves authentic Italian cuisine, you will see that most of the Italian food revolves around similar ingredients. This is what makes Italian food one of its kind. You can explore a variety of food from pizza to risotto and every dish has its own unique specialty but the same set of ingredients.

Some of these essential ingredients that are available in every Italian pantry and spell the word ‘Italian’ in every way and form are mentioned below.

Cheese

We cannot start the list of essential Italian ingredients without mentioning cheese at the top. Italian cheese is further broken down into a variety of hard and soft cheeses that are aged and smoked as per the requirement of the dish. Literally every Italian dish has some form of cheese in it. Mozzarella, parmesan, Burrata, there is a long list of cheeses that you can find in Italy. But there will be hardly any dish that won’t have cheese in it. In fact, even the Italian desserts have cheese, mascarpone cheese, cream cheese, imagine!

Garlic

All over Italy, you may find different recipes of the same dish but every recipe shall have garlic. Italians love garlic and there is no way someone was unfamiliar with this fact. The aroma of garlic sauteed or burnt in olive oil is so strong in every Italian dish that it is hard to ignore. We are not complaining because this aroma is what makes us crave even more for Italian cuisine. There is nothing better than the aromatic garlic adding charismatic flavor to the dish, it’s mesmerizing.

Olive Oil

Talking about garlic sauteed in olive oil, how can we forget adding olive oil to the list of essential ingredients in Italian cuisine? Olive oil is the most preferred cooking oil in Italy or should we say, extra virgin olive oil? Italians pour olive oil on their pizza before taking a bite, we are not even kidding. And if you haven’t tried pizza their way, trust us you are missing out on something so delicious and flavorsome. Olive oil is the base of almost every dish you can imagine and we seriously don’t think they use any oil other than olive oil these days. Of course butter is an exception.

Wine

Well, wine is not only served as a drink in Italy. Italians are popular for their cuisine and their wine but not a lot of people know that even Italian food contains the goodness of wine. Why do you think you are not able to make red sauce pasta as flavorful as served in an Italian restaurant? Well, consider adding red wine to your recipe next time and feel the difference yourself.

Bread

Are we going to finish the list of essential Italian ingredients without mentioning bread? Of course not. Italians serve bread with almost every dish, don’t they? So many recipes are literally based on bread. It may come as a shock to some of you but Italy does not have the same recipe of bread in every region. So, in every region of Italy you will find a different type of bread, but you will very definitely find bread. Be it in the form of focaccia, ciabatta, pizza bianca, pane toscano, or crescentina, every bread has its own shape, recipe, flavor, and texture.

Bottom Line

Italian cuisine has a number of ingredients that define the cuisine. Despite its differences even at regional level, within Italy, these ingredients make the process of making Italian food seem so similar.