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What is the first thing that comes in your mind when you hear the phrase Italian food? If it is pasta, then you are a victim of the typical stereotyping that takes place where a certain dish is treated as the embodiment of the cuisine of an entire nation. Just as America is something more than the hamburger, Italian food is something more than just the pasta.
If you want to enjoy real Italian food, you must look beyond the pasta and take a look at the flavoring agents. Liberal use of olive oil, asparagus, sun dried tomatoes and others such foodstuffs create the unique and aromatic flavor in Italian food. Come to think of it, Italian pasta is famous primarily because of the use of these flavoring agents.
This is not to say that dunking your bacon or pork in olive oil is one to make it an Italian dish. Subtle changes and smart use of ingredients combined with lots of cheese will help you bring the Italian flavor into American food. If you want to enjoy the real cuisine of any nation, it is important to go beyond the most glamorous aspect of the cuisine. Once you start learning more about olive oil, you will realize that there are different grades of oil and each one has a unique and distinctive flavor, texture and aroma.
Understanding these subtle nuances will help you become a better judge of food. The next time you make pasta, you know that you are cooking Italian food because you are using ingredients that experts in Italian food have been relying on for hundreds of years.
