![\"Italian](\"http:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/mangia2.png\")
<\/a>\nOf all the delicious things to eat in\u00a0Italy, most important are the dishes you\u00a0won\u2019t find. Try ordering spaghetti and\u00a0meatballs, fettuccine alfredo, or chicken\u00a0parm, and you\u2019ll be outed as a turista\u00a0straightaway! Fettuccine and cream sauces\u00a0certainly exist, but fettuccine alfredo\u00a0doesn\u2019t, and while eggplant is served alla\u00a0parmigiana, chicken certainly isn\u2019t. Sure,\u00a0spaghetti al pomodoro (with tomato sauce)\u00a0is available at many trattorias as a primo,\u00a0or first course. But there are so many other\u00a0options for your primo: all types of pasta\u00a0(rigatoni, penne, bucatini, pappardelle,\u00a0tagliatelle, and more), risotto, or gnocchi\u00a0di patate take center stage as first course\u00a0options. And while polpette (meatballs)\u00a0are quite popular, especially with children,\u00a0you\u2019ll never find them atop a pile of\u00a0spaghetti!<\/p>\n
As a matter of fact, you\u2019ll rarely find\u00a0large quantities of meat combined with\u00a0any sort of pasta. Meat dishes like chicken\u00a0cacciatore, braciole, even meat-like dishes\u00a0like eggplant parmigiana are typically\u00a0served in the second course, or secondo,\u00a0along with a contorno, or side dish. Here\u2019s\u00a0where the veggies come in: fagiolini (green\u00a0beans), broccoli rabe, or chicory, a stringy\u00a0and slightly spicy green vegetable, are all\u00a0popular sides, along with roasted potatoes,\u00a0yet another carb to propagate the Italian\u00a0food stereotypes.<\/p>\n
Another misconception is that all Italian\u00a0food is slathered with tomato sauce. As a\u00a0matter of fact, up until the 18th century\u00a0Italian food was devoid of tomatoes\u00a0altogether, due to a belated arrival of the\u00a0fruit from mesoamerica and the European\u00a0misconception that it was poisonous.\u00a0Thus many Italian dishes are sans tomato:\u00a0saltimbocca, pasta alla pesto, cannellini\u00a0bean bruschetta. The list goes on.<\/p>\n
Yet even more stereotype-busting variety\u00a0can be found with every region, every\u00a0city you visit in Italy. Visit Tuscany and\u00a0try panzanella, white truffle pasta, and\u00a0cantucci, small almond biscuits or biscotti.\u00a0Travel to Genoa and try the pesto Genovese,\u00a0traditional basil pesto, or farinata, a savory\u00a0crepe made of chickpeas. Parma might not\u00a0be much of a tourist destination, but it is\u00a0the home of an Italian staple: Parmesan\u00a0cheese, while Naples is home to everyone\u2019s\u00a0favorite: pizza! Neapolitan pizza is the\u00a0traditional soft-crust variety typically\u00a0topped with the regional buffalo mozzarella,\u00a0but nearly every region has their own\u00a0style: thin-crust pizza in Rome, thick-crust\u00a0or stuffed pizza in Sicily. Even focaccia,\u00a0another product of Genoa, is sometimes\u00a0considered a type of pizza.<\/p>\n
Want to plan a trip to Italy? We can help!<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Next time you visit Italy, think outside the pizza box. In North America, Italian\u00a0cuisine is largely believed to be composed of five major food groups: Tomatoes,\u00a0basil, bread, pasta, and cheese. But when you travel to Bell\u2019 Italia, see for yourself\u00a0what a wide variety of dishes and yes, even vegetables, make up Italian cuisine. Of all Read More …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":6241,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,172],"tags":[410,345,58,17,128,12],"class_list":["post-6240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-explorica-news","category-teachers","tag-cultural-immersion","tag-educational-tours","tag-educational-travel","tag-italy","tag-student-travel","tag-travel-tips"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/41"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6240"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6240\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6257,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6240\/revisions\/6257"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>The list goes on, as Italians have been\u00a0cooking (and eating) for thousands of\u00a0years. Yet ultimately, Italian food boils\u00a0down to a few basic concepts: combine\u00a0fresh vegetables, seafood, meat, pasta or\u00a0rice with a little olive oil, a hint of garlic,\u00a0oregano or basil, crushed red pepper, and\u00a0just enough salt. Add bread, cheese, wine,\u00a0fruit, dessert, coffee, a table full of friends\u00a0and family, two hours of eating, talking\u00a0with your hands, and of course, enough\u00a0food to make you say basta la pasta\u00a0(enough pasta). Then presto you have an\u00a0authentic Italian meal. Buon appetito!<\/p>\n