If you go to Italy, you HAVE to take advantage of the amazing food there! Having lived in Italy for 19 months, I think I can help you out a little :)
Did you know that some foods are better in their birthplace? Most foods are good everywhere, but if you really want to get a feeling of local foods, you should eat the food in the region it comes from.
Did you know that some foods are better in their birthplace? Most foods are good everywhere, but if you really want to get a feeling of local foods, you should eat the food in the region it comes from.
GELATO! -throughout Italy
Gelato is one of the most well known foods of Italy and with good reason-it's delicious. Once you've eaten gelato, ice cream just won't cut it. Gelato is just creamier and more divine! There are a lot of gelato shops (gelateria) in Italy, but be careful! Every gelateria is not created equal. One trick that I like to do is look at the banana flavor of gelato. If it is a bright yellow, move on to the next gelato shop. If it's more of a gray less vibrant yellow, you've found your match. The reason for this is that you want the gelateria to use natural ingredients. If the banana is bright yellow, they've used artificial flavors and won't taste as good. You can get gelato in all parts of Italy, but it's believed that it comes from the south in Sicily and from the north in the Dolomites area. Some of my favorite flavors include: stracciatella(white with chocolate bits), nocciola(hazelnut), pistachio (pistachio), cocco (coconut), and crema (egg custard flavor). If you want more flavors decoded, check out this link.
If you're not sure which kind you want just say "posso assagiare" and they will give you a small spoon to taste.
Balsamic vinegar-Modena & Reggio Emilia
Balsamic vinegar is amazing and even better in the place it comes from. Italians eat balsamic vinegar with a lot of things. In my experience, it is mostly eaten with salads and bread. Yum!
Spaghetti with red meat sauce or Spaghetti Bolognese sauce-Bologna
Traditional spaghetti with red sauce is amazing in the Bologna area. Why? Bolognese sauce is amazing! Red tomato sauce packed with sausage and beef will make your mouth water whenever thinking about it. Instead of asking for spaghetti, ask for spaghetti tagliatelle, a similar pasta to Spaghetti. My mouth is now watering thinking about it!
Salame di Cioccolato-throughout Italy
It is a dessert or a snack that consists of cocoa, broken biscuits, butter and eggs. It's usually eaten with coffee or after lunch.
Parmigiano Reggiano is also known as parmesan cheese, a granular salty and nutty flavored cheese. You haven't tasted parmesan cheese until you've visited Italy. It's best in Parma or in the Emilia Romana region. It's a great topping for lots of pasta dishes.
Mozzarella di Buffala-Naples area comes from milk from the Italian Mediterranean buffalo. It is good! Although i've never had it in the area it comes from, you can really tell a difference. It's good on pizza, pasta........well just about anything.
Ricotta is a very soft cheese that can be used in a lot of different recipes. It is popular in lasagnas, but I have also seen Italians eat it as dessert with granulated sugar to top.
Pecorino is a hard cheese with 6 different varieties. It's best in the south of Italy, Sardenia and also in the Tuscan areas. It's used to top off pasta dishes and is a cheaper alternative to parmesan cheese.
Grano Padano is another hard cheese that can be a substitute for parmesan cheese. It can last longer than many other hard cheeses and is amazing on top of pastas.
Risotto-Milan
The picture doesn't really do it justice. It is a northern rice cooked in broth that makes it have a very creamy consistency. What you see here is risotto alla milanese, but you can find a lot of different kinds of risotto. It can be coked with mushrooms, seafood, onions, vegetables, meats etc.
Pollo Milanese-Milan
While we're talking about Milan, let's talk about some amazing chicken you can eat that's a Milan traditional recipe. It is a very flat piece of chicken that has been breaded and cooked to be a crispy golden crunch deliciousness.
Focaccia Genovese-Genova or Liguria region
Focaccia is a bread that is made the entire Liguria region by Genova. You can get Focaccia throughout Italy, but in my experience, you don't get really good focaccia outside of the Liguria region. It comes in sheets and it has little holes. The best way to find a really good piece of focaccia is if you can see olive oil in the little indents of the bread. If you can, that means it will be crunchy on the outside of the bread and it is chewy on the indents of the bread because the olive oil stopped that area from becoming crunchy. My favorite is a traditional focaccia with just olive oil and salt, but you can find lots of kinds of it with olives, marinara sauce, and all kinds of toppings. 
Tortellini-Modena
In the Emilia Romana region, tortellini has lots of roots and the area is famous for tortellini among other things. If you go to a restaurant there, you will probably find tortellini and it will usually be hand made pasta.
Pasta Carbonara-Rome
This is a pasta dish from Rome and it's delicious! It's made with long noodles, eggs, bacon, pepper, and a hard cheese, like parmesan cheese. It's a must try in Italy!
Lasagna Bolognese-Bologna
Lasagna in Italy is just so much better than anywhere else. I am of course biased, but it is so dang good! You can get a layer of white creamy besciamella sauce, red tomato sauce and incredible hand made pasta lasagna sheets. The red sauce is famous for Bologna. The ingredients used mesh together perfectly and leave your mouth wanting more.
Polenta-Northern Italy
Polenta is a kind of cornmeal and it is boiled and then baked or fried. If it's fried it can take hours to make because it has to cook slow and be constantly stirred. It's usually associated with northern Italy, but it can also be associated with central Italy.
Pesto-Liguria region
You've probably heard of pesto, but you haven't really eaten pesto until Italy. I don't know what they do, but the pesto is just amazing! It is usually put on pastas.
Italian meats-throughout Italy
Salame is another meat that is usually sliced thinly. It's a cured beef or sausage that is then dried.
Pancetta is an Italian bacon that you can buy from the store and it usually comes in cubes, but can also be sliced. It is salt cured and often dried with pepper and other spices. Like many of other cured meats, it is often consumed raw.
Did I mention Gelato?
Caccio e Peppe-Rome
It's a pasta dish that means cheese and pepper in some Italian dialects. The crazy thing is that that's really what is is! Imagine cooking pasta, throwing it in olive oil, adding butter, pepper, and a hard cheese. Sounds good, eh?
Hot chocolate-Throughout Italy
Hot chocolate in Italy is extremely thick! It's not like drinking any other kind of beverage because the amount of chocolate and other ingredients really thickens the entire liquid. It's so good though!
Tiramisu-Verona
Tiramisu literally means pick me up, and that's exactly what it does. Ladyfingers, a soft biscuit are soaked and layered between a marscapone egg creamy mixture. It's served cold and it's a perfect light dessert.
Ravioli-throughout Italy
Ravioli are small pastas usually filled with a soft cheese and other ingredients and served with broth or some kind of pasta sauce. The internal ingredients vary with the region. In Rome and southern regions, ravioli are usually stuffed with ricotta and spinach. In Sardenia, ravioli are usually stuffed with ricotta and lemon zest.
Pizza-Naples
You can't think of pizza without Napoli because that's where it was invented. Pizza in Italy is not like the states because the crust is very thin. The best kind of pizza has thin chewy crust that's cooked in a wood fired oven. I love pizza bianca in Rome and the margherita anywhere. If you're looking for how to order a pizza in Italy, click here
Gnocchi-throughout Italy
One of my favorite Italian dishes is Gnocchi. I've had a lot of gnocchi in the states that is just heavy, but in Italy the little potato dumplings are somehow airy and light. Topped with a great pasta sauce and a hard cheese, you won't be disappointed if you eat these.
If you haven't already had 5, go ahead and eat 5 more servings of Gelato.
