30 Best Foods to Try in Italy

Pesto 

Pesto was originally created in Genoa, Italy. This delicious sauce is perfect for light pasta. To make pesto, you mix basil, pine nuts, garlic, salt, olive oil, and parmesan cheese until it becomes almost a paste.

Pesto recipes do vary based on region and may use other types of cheese or nuts. I have also seen spinach used, however, brazil is the traditional way to make homemade pesto.

Pesto is normally added to pasta, though I love making Caprese sandwiches with it as well. 

Gnocchi

Unlike other pasta, gnocchi is made with a potato base. The potatoes are boiled and then mashed together with flour and cheese. Some recipes even add an egg for extra richness.

The dough is then worked together into long ropes which are cut into inch-long pieces that are then put in boiling water to cook. Many people eat gnocchi with a tomato sauce, but pesto is another good way to enjoy them.  

Cacio e Pepe

This Roman pasta dish consists mostly of cheese and pepper, aka its name. The cheese that you need to use is Pecorino Romano cheese which is mixed cracked black pepper.

Many recipes today add butter to the recipe as well, however, that is not the traditional way to make the sauce.

Instead, the cheese and pepper are combined with the cooked pasta and a little pasta water. The boiling pasta water mixes with the cheese and helps coat the pasta.

This is one dish that will never be as good as in an Italian restaurant, and one you must try when you visit Italy. 

Carbonara

Another delicious dish is pasta carbonara. There is much debate as to the origination of the dish, but everyone can agree that it is worth the calories.

The recipe is made with cured pork, Pecorino Romano/ Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, and black pepper. The secret ingredient to this rich dish is the addition of eggs.

The eggs create a creamy coating to the spaghetti and give the dish its beautiful color. 

Eggplant Parmesan

One of the most delicious vegetarian dishes, eggplant is my favorite dish and one that I grew up eating.

It is a pretty labor-intensive dish to make because not only do you have to salt the eggplants to extract the bitterness, they also have to be fried.

First, the eggplant is sliced thin and set outside covered in salt for at least an hour and a half to sweat out the bitterness. From there, the slices are covered in a flour mixture and lightly fried in oil.

Many recipes say to bake the eggplant, but trust me frying is much better. Once the eggplant is fried, they are layered with tomato sauce and lots of parmesan cheese before being baked in the oven. 

Lasagna

This wonderful Italian dish is pretty labor-intensive to make and is also easily varied. The main ingredients of any lasagna are the sheets of pasta, tomato sauce, ricotta, and mozzarella cheese.

The fillings can be easily changed. Most lasagnas are made with ground meat, but spinach and ricotta pasta is also extremely delicious. 

Ravioli

Ravioli is a great comfort dish and is traditionally made by hand. The pasta dough is made from scratch and rolled out into thin sheets. The sheets of dough are cut into rectangular pieces that are filled with different types of fillings.

Some popular fillings are spinach and ricotta, three cheese, mushroom, and when in Italy, truffles!

Tortellini

Tortellini is another stuffed pasta. Like ravioli, it can have different types of fillings, but tortellini is much smaller and has a very different shape.

Most tortellini is filled with either meat and cheese or a combination of cheeses. Tortellini can be served in sauce like pasta, or in broth as a soup. 

Risotto

Risotto is a creamy rice dish that has been served both in Italy and other countries for hundreds of years. White wine, broth, and parmesan cheese are slowly added to the Arborio rice to create a thick consistency.

There are so many variations of additional ingredients added to the dish, but my favorite is mushrooms. The dish can be served as either a first course or a side dish, but it can also be eaten as the main course.