ROME-LAZIO While most of Italy balances its cooking between butter and olive oil, Rome prefers matured pork fat called strutto. In other ways Rome is different too: vegetables grown in the surrounding volcanic soil are said to have a distinct taste, and sheep, suckling lamb, and suckling kid (slaughtered often ...

Corsica Politically, Corsica is a part of France, but her geography, history, and language are linked inexorably with Italy. Most distinctively Corsican cuisine is noted for its imaginative use of chestnuts, which are used whole or ground into a fine flour that forms a part of many types of dishes ...

NAPLES-CAMPAGNA The Neapolitans who emigrated to other lands also made famous their city’s two great dishes: pizza and spaghetti. They also popularized pommarola, the tomato sauce that graces pizza and most pasta dishes. Many North Americans, therefore, are surprised by the great variety of foods in Italy. But it is ...

SICILY AND SARDINIA These two islands represent an unspoiled tradition of what is believed to be the earliest Italian cuisine. The cuisine stems from many influences, especially the early Greeks who conquered Sicily and the early Phoenicians (Lebanese) who conquered Sardinia. It is a tradition dating back more than 2,000 ...

TUSCANY In the 1400s, which city dined first with a knife and a fork and dabbed elegantly with a napkin? Venice, the Venetians, of course, claim, but the Florentines claim it was Florence, in Tuscany. Also in the 1400s, not only was pasta and ravioli of many varieties commonly cooked, ...

CALABRIA, LUCANIA, and APULIA Calabrian cookery is based mostly on pasta, many varieties of vegetables, and cheese. Most coastal towns have their own specialties in fish dishes and these are usually types of fish soups which may be based on fish and/or seafood: brodetto, zuppa di pesce alla marinara, and ...