Italian Cuisine Shines – Thanks to Ingredients from the Americas

As enthralled as I am with Italy, I would make a rotten Italian. The unrelenting doer in me could never live up to the motto of dolce far niente. The sweetness of doing nothing. Accomplished and industrious, Italians also value slowing down and savoring life. Meals that last for hours, long summer vacations, and unscheduled lives are the norm.

My pace is even relentless on Italian soil. Take my last visit just months before the pandemic struck. After touring the Roman Forum, I took the chaotic walk past the Victor Emmanuel Monument. The grandiose structure built to commemorate the unification of Italy is too modern and flamboyant to impress me. I pushed on. My destination was Trastevere across the Tiber River. I was on a culinary mission.  

I crossed the Ponte dei Quattro Capi, Rome’s oldest bridge, built before the birth of Christ. Antiquity under my feet. On Tiber Island, I paused to ogle the beautifully-dressed Romans gathering for a wedding in a Baroque-style church.

I couldn’t linger. I was due in the piazza for the start of my food tour with Eating Europe. The only thing I dislike about traveling solo is eating dinner by myself. The solution is to join fellow travelers on a tasting tour. In the cobblestoned neighborhood of Tratevere, we started with cocktails and appetizers at a casual trattoria. Next came wine tasting in a cellar older than the colosseum. Before we sat for a leisurely homemade pasta dinner, we made pit stops at a deli and a cookie shop.

A Roman evening of pasta flavored with tomato sauce, tasty pizza, cookies dipped in chocolate, and Nutella gelato could only be possible thanks to . . . the American continents. How can that be, you ask?

I’ve often reflected that many of the dishes Italy is famous for – pizza, marinara sauce, Caprese salad, creamy polenta, tiramisu – were inconceivable before 1492. The tomato may be synonymous with Italian food, but it was unknown in Europe until trade began with the Americas. Same for corn, chocolate, and potatoes which muscled their way into Italian cuisine—with stupendous results. Nutella, lasagna, gnocci with pomodoro sauce, bruschetta, Venetian cornmeal cookies known as zaleti. Shall I go on?

So, what the heck did Italians eat before the American continents offered up their bounty?   

Beans and beans and beans. The Tuscans were known as bean eaters. Okay, that’s not the whole story. Bread, game, seafood and a glorious assortment of vegetables have long dominated Italian dinner tables. As have songbirds, sadly enough. With olive oil and wine always on offer. But the American additions elevated the cuisine.

So, the next time you tuck in to a plateful of spaghetti alla marinara or sink your teeth into a slice of pizza, give a nod to the Americas.