Isakat

I thought I'd post a new thread about the foodstuffs we love or hate in Italy.

hate: marzipan sweets,
amaretti,
strong pecorino( can smell the old mutton whose milk was used)
cicoria-too bitter.
cakes full of panna or crema chantilly

love:
all pasta
grilled veg
coffee buiscuits especially brutti e buoni( full of nuts)
Danesi gold coffee
carneval buicuits-the thin crunchy ones with icing sugar on top
salame with tartufo/fragoline/pistachi
maroni spread
torrone
cheese from Puglia
smoked mozarella

will think of more

Serrano

hate: nothing

love: everything

And, before you ask, yes I am overweight.

Specifically, my list of favourites is very long, but the first things that come to mind are:
pasta (especially home-made egg pasta)
grilled veg
biscotti di mosto (especially if they have dried fruit in)
trippa
coratelli
wild asparagus
freshly-picked wild mushrooms
rabbit
agretti
good fondente ice cream
semifreddi
baccalà and stoccafisso
lumache
lumache del mare

oh, and I guess the list goes on for ever. I don't, however, eat them in the order given.

And I'm serious, I honestly haven't yet found an Italian food (if well prepared) that I don't like - I even like olives ascolana and fried crema.

Ok, so take me out and shoot me.

TestaRossa

Hates a bit strong, so I'll stick with dislike, cos I'll eat most things if pushed (I really dislike most fruit and will probably have to be starving to eat it....)

All the lovely looking cakes that taste of lemon - again...
Bread without salt.
Smoked cheese of any kind.
Sacher sponges soaked in liqueur or whatever it is - vile!
All the fake chocolate cakes/biscuits that turn out to be Nutella! I want my chocolate to taste of chocolate not Nutella!!
Succo that's mainly sugar.
Green Apple juice!!
The fact that sausages only come in one flavour if you want pork.
Roast beef (Why is it always a piece of stewing beef that's labelled as Roast beef?!)


Likes:
All the other cheeses that aren't smoked!
Tiramisu/profiteroles/chocolate mousse
sfoglia - the breakfast pastry filled with custard etc.
Schiacciatta (in Florence this is foccacia)
Prosecco/chianti/amarone etc!!!
olives and olive oil!
Ragu
Pizza
risotto
tagliata di manza with parmesan and rucola
The neopolitan dough balls with proscuitto and stracchina (sic)
rosticciana (ribs in Florence)
chicken with potatoes
pappa al pomodoro (my own!)
pesto
insalata di farro
and on, and on....

Lorna at Vicenza

I absolutely loath:

coffee in any shape or form so that includes tiramisu.
any kind of stinky cheese like gorgonzola.
nutella.
zampone and cotechino
cren and mustard
baccalà
olives
ameretto and almond flavoured stuff


Dislike:

polenta
squid
octopus
black ink risotto
tartufo
too many mushrooms
aperol, gingerino, san bitter and any other orange and bitter mixer.
horse meat
little birds
castagne
radicchio

Like:

pasta and rice
ragu
lasagna
melanzane alla parmigiana
canneloni stuffed with spinach and ricotta
minestrone
all the different salad leaves
mozzarella
prosciutto cotto and crudo
tagliata
peperonata
spezzatino
prosecco and white wine
melon, water melon, cherries, grapes and other summer fruits
bruschetta
most fish and seafood

Isakat

Agree Testarossa, dislike is a better word, but now it has been posted I do not know how to change the title.
I also have never found roast beef here to be the same as the one in the UK.

Serrano, what does trippa taste like -never had it in my life.
Also, agretti-I bought them once and they tasted exactly like the grass from our garden. Maybe I am a rubbish cook.
I ordered snail soup once while in Paris and could not eat it as all I could see were the green bits inside them which I suppose it is the grass they had eaten.
I tried rabbit once and it was OK, but would not eat it on principle, same with horse meat.What are coratelli?

Lorna, I also do not like radichio, too bitter but have never tasted zampone and cotechino-is it like fatty porchetta? Love good porchetta.
Black ink risotto, well, I have not tried it, but the look will put me off.

ononno

Ciao tutti,
not an easy question to answer.
I dislike (hate?) anything with lemon in it.

I will eat practically anything else except cakes/trifles etc. that contain artificial whipped vegetable cream.

Love shellfish, fresh broad beans with new potatoes and lots of olive oil/garlic, Donna C's canelloni, home made sanguinaccio (nearest thing to proper black pudding!)
buon appetito,
'o nonno

37100

Like Lorna, I can't stand coffee in any shape or form. I aslo hate cotechino and zampone. And some things I've tried and thought, 'never, again, I don't even want to know what it is.'

The rest is more dislikes.

Olives.
Brains.
Heart.
Snails.
Horsemeat and Quails.
Aubergine -through have a major bumber crop one year.
Choc ice cream.
Bitter chocolate.
Sacher.
Baccala.
Antipasto alla piemontese - veg boiled in tomatoes.
Frittata and anything eggie.
Most red wines (or rather, they dislike me as does milk.)
Chardonney

And I'm sick of polenta.

I love:-

Parma ham and melon.
Raw fennels
Low fat yogurt, but not strawberry.
Bagna cauda except the Cardi gobbi bit.
PIZZA, PIZZA, PIZZA.
Patate in tecia (roast potaoes, the local way -a bit mushy)
Most white wines.

Lorna at Vicenza

Zampone is a pig's trotter and cotechino is like a big fat sausage made from pigs guts, lard, herbs, pork rind etc.

Both are traditionally served on a bed of lentils and eaten on Christmas day.

Both are like eating a very thick slice of really fatty and greasy salame that has been warmed up.

I don't like it but people here love it at Christms time. I suppose taste can depend on what you have grown up with and what you have got used to eating and liking.

TestaRossa

Isakat - it wasn't a dig, it's just there isn't anything I really hate food wise, so hate is too strong for me personally! My husband hates cooked cabbage, tea and sprouts to the point they make him puke! The only thing has that effect on me is shellfish and that's a genuine allergy, so everything else is just a question of taste!

I like how they cook trippa here, but it's not something I'll dash out for! In Florence it comes cut up in a rich tomato sauce or you buy it off the vans in a bun covered in salsa verde (then it's just boiled) Lampredotto is done the same. Tbh there isn't much taste to either but they are quite chewy.

For the beef I try to find something that looks close to a sirloin roast or I cop out and get vitello which is always softer. Veal is something I wouldn't eat in the UK but you can't get away from it here and it is generally easier to eat than the beef!

I always think of Zampone/cottechino as black pudding with a lot less blood! It's kind of jelly-ish, tastes okay and I now send one back to the UK for my sister's New Years Eve dinner!!

Lorna at Vicenza

I haven't touched a sprout snce I left my mum's house. She made me eat three every Wednesday and even gave me one each Christmas day. They made me gag. I tried every trick in the book to get out of eating them including throwing them to the dog but the dog didn't like them either.

In the 20 years I've been here nobody has ever served up sprouts either at friends' or in restuarants and trattorias. I'm so pleased they are not a staple winter veg here.

pommybird

Every time I come to Rome and eat pizza I feel like I've died and gone to heaven!

Have been told by the rellies that the ultimate pizza heaven is Naples and am considering a trip there purely to eat pizza!

gelato

Hate:

-pecorino
-polenta
-gnocchi
-horse meat (I have no ethical problem with it - just don't like it)
-horrible dry cakes
-pannetone
-overly sweet Sicilian desserts like marzipan and cannoli
-horrible fake blood orange juice
-nutella and nutella flavoured things - too sweet

Love
Roman dishes like oxtail and tripe
Artichokes
Roman pizza
Rucola
Hot salame
Proscuitto crudo
buffalo mozzarella

TestaRossa

Just as well you don't live here then! They are very much a winter staple and other times of the year too! They sell them pre-cooked in the pronto piatto section in Esselunga and just in big bags generally this time of year! I love them but I'm the only one who does. I've even bought the pre-cooked and eaten them cold walking home from the supermarket....

It is! Just go! And generally it is food heaven!!

gelato - I feel the same about the green apple!! When was apple juice EVER naturally lime green!!!

Anderson Council

Of course it depends how they're done, but I find both pasta and pizza fundamentally boring. (I chose the right country to live in then!) The other day I saw that Greg bloke off Masterchef saying that "fave e cicorie" is his favourite ever dish. I'd have to agsee with him. Do they eat it up north?

37100

Forgot to say. As long as it doesn't have too many cloves. I love donkey stew.