Easy Italian Recipes

It is impossible to generalise about family eating in Italy, but Italians tend to follow the traditions learned from previous generations. Every Italian family has its own recipe for rag), for example, handed down from grandmother to grandchild and so on. It appears to me that the Italians are as passionate about retaining original recipes as we are about changing them, and will happily share them with you when you eat something you enjoy.

Many families live close to one another, so a meal can be shared on a weekly, if not a daily, basis. Except in some of Italy's busy cities, lunch is still often eaten at home or lingered over with friends at an osteria.
Meeting and eating with family and friends, together with regular trips to bars for essential caffeine boosts, forms the backbone of the day, which usually begins with colazione. Italians have no love for breakfast as we know it. It is really a matter of a cappuccino and croissant or a great big doughnut stuffed with custard at the bar on the way to work. Sweet foods are preferred to savoury - offer a bacon butty and it is anathema; I've tried!

Spuntino is a light snack at any time of day, such as a panino or cake, while l'ora di pranzo is the time to lunch', usually at 1pm. The father always ate at that time exactly, as though his life depended on it - such was the respect given to his digestion.
In the afternoon there is often a snack, normally sweet, and usually given to school children, which is known as merenda. Then, come evening, there may be an aperitivo in a bar, where free nibbles of food are given with drinks, followed by cena - dinner - at home or in an osteria, trattoria or ristorante.

Rich and Poor - The Sources of Italian Cooking

Much of Italy's cooking comes from two distinct sources: cucina povera, or the cooking of the poor, and cucina nobile, the rich man's diet. Since the days of the Romans and even further back to the Etruscans, cooking for the different classes has been divided. The Romans, for example, considered brown bread only to be suitable for the poor, whereas bread for the wealthy was made from white flour - indeed, this was so celebrated that it was worn as face powder by rich women wishing to make themselves appear paler.

As necessity is the mother of invention, many wonderful dishes have arisen from the tradition of cucina povera, making the most of leftovers, using what little is available at any time of the year, and preserving. Yesterday's bread, for example, has hundreds of uses, forming the basis of the Tuscan soup Ribollita, and Gnocchi gnudi, the spinach dumplings of the north.

Cucina nobile has also left its mark, harking back to the feasts enjoyed by the wealthy, when chefs showed off for their patrons by using spices and exotic fruits brought to Italy by visiting traders, and employing culinary skills learnt from the Arabs. Think of sorbets, made originally with snow and fruit juice and sweetened with honey, John Dory Stew with Potatoes and Saffron or Saddle of Venison and you have a flavour of cucina nobile.