Italian Gourmet Cuisine 101

Italian gourmet cuisine, like Italian cuisine in general, is widely diverse. The variety of Italian gourmet cuisine reflects the different cultures of the country's regions and its rich history. Italian gourmet cuisine is also influenced by several civilizations including Greece, Rome, and the Arab world. Italian gourmet cuisine is the foremost example of Mediterranean cuisine. It is one of the most copied cuisines in the world.

In general, the difference between the Italian gourmet cuisine of northern and southern Italy is the cooking fat commonly used as well as the style of the pasta. Northern Italian gourmet cuisine uses more of cream, butter and Mascarpone cheese and for the pasta, risotto and fresh egg pasta. The Southern Italian gourmet cuisine favors olive oil, Mozzarella cheese, and dried pasta. Southern Italians also tend to use more tomatoes in their dishes.

The structure of a traditional Italian gourmet cuisine menu includes the antipasto or appetizers, which can be hot or cold, the first course or primo, which typically consists of hot dishes like pasta, gnocchi, risotto or polenta with plenty of vegetable choices. A unique aspect of Italian gourmet cuisine is that usually the first course is the heaviest meal.

This is followed by secondo or the second course, whish is the main dish. A fish or meat dish is usually served with veal as the top meat choice. While most people would normally think the Italian gourmet cuisine is all about pasta, pasta is never served as a main dish.

After the secondo is contorno or the side dish. This may include vegetables or a salad.
Of course, to complete your Italian gourmet cuisine menu you need to serve dolce or dessert. One of the most popular classic Italian desserts is the zabaglione cream. A gourmet version of this adds whipped cream and ground almond or amaretti cookies to the zabaglione cream for a rich delicious dessert.

The last part of any traditional Italian gourmet cuisine is serving caffè or coffee, also referred to as espresso. This is a strong coffee served in small amounts. After the coffee, a digestive or digestivo is served, which refer to liquors such as brandy or sweet wine.

Italian gourmet cuisine reflects the cuisines of diverse regions of Italy. For example, a Tuscan-inspired Italian gourmet cuisine typically features unsalted bread, white beans and meat. The use of pecorino in Italian gourmet cooking can be said to be have Roman cuisine influences, where the cheese is usually used. Italian gourmet cuisine is all about highlighting the best foods of each Italian region from the pizza of Naples to the Sicilian gelato.
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Corrie Duana, an expert in Food and Drink, is a writer for ArticleMash.com.