Angela
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I found the list at the following site, where I check in occasionally because a friend contributes to it once in a while. I don't disagree precisely, but some of it is a little too precious...some of the foods exist, they just have a different name...
http://www.thelocal.it/galleries/Culture/10-italian-dishes-that-dont-exist-in-italy/1
Just scroll through the pictures:
1. Pepperoni pizza-yes, if you ask for that you'll get pizza with sauteed peppers, but you can get pizza with salami piccante...not quite the same, but a reasonable substitute. I do love pepperoni pizza American style, fwiw. Wait, wait! By American style, I don't mean Pizza Hut or any of those spawns of the devil. I mean my neighborhood pizzeria run by a guy born and bred in Napoli. You can't get decent pizza even in California, and as for the south and midwest, a decent silence should be observed. Only recently can you get it in Florida, and only because a few Northeast U.S. guys have moved down there to be near their elderly retired parents. It's like bagels...I miss them when I'm out of the northeast.
2. Ziti Alfredo-An abomination, imo, but I think they're wrong that it was invented in the U.S. I heard that an "Alfredo" sauce was created in a Roman restaurant and put on tagliatelle, but not, thank God, with chicken in it. If there's a food disaster worse than this is when cooked in American restaurants, floppy, mushy pasta, drowned in a sea of cream, absolutely bland, and then dotted with packaged, overcooked and under-flavored chicken breast, I can't at the moment think of it.
3. Spaghetti Carbonara with cream-Of course you can get it, but it's not going to have cream in it...yikes...just imagine a tremendous shudder. However, to expect American cooks to make it with guanciale or pig cheek is a little too much. Even in New York I'd have to go way out of my way to get guanciale. Heck, even in parts of Italy it's not available everywhere, every time. Pancetta is a perfectly acceptable substitute.
4. Garlic Bread-It's true; so far as I know, it's not Italian. It's good, though.
5. Ham and pineapple pizza-Unfortunately, I have seen it in a few places, but it's undoubtedly because they're catering to some tourists; it was in Firenze, which is full of foreign touriss. I'm obviously a very bad mother, though, because my son eats it. :ashamed2:
6. Spaghetti with meatballs-Every time I see this written on the net a few Italian Americans will pipe up that they serve it in their ancestral village in Italy, usually in the Abruzzi. I beg leave to doubt; it's probably backflow. Even if it's not, it's extremely rare. Polpette are an appetizer, or a main dish, and not drowned like the spaghetti in a vat of "red" sauce.
7. "Italian Dressing"-if you poured it out of a bottle on to your salad, it's not Italian.
8. Spaghetti Bolognese-This is what I mean when I say they're a little too precious. You can indeed order tagliatelle or fettuccine(never spaghetti) with ragu' alla Bolognese, which means sauce Bologna style. Also, while the traditional Bologna style is almost all meat with just a little bit of tomato paste, even they make other versions that have more tomato in it, and our meat ragu in Lunigiana and Toscana.
alla bolognese-purists say not even tomato paste, but most people do this...
alla genovese:
The above are basically tinted meat sauces.
alla toscana-this is basically what we do...has a little bit more tomato, but it's not "tomato sauce with meat"; it's meat sauce with some tomato, unlike what foreigners do...
9. Macaroni and Cheese-Come on, nobody thinks that's Italian.
10. Panini-Well, you can order them, but what you'll get is a "dry" sandwich with some cured meat, probably less than what you're used to. You'd be better off ordering tremezzini, and asking to have them grilled, if possible.
http://www.thelocal.it/galleries/Culture/10-italian-dishes-that-dont-exist-in-italy/1
Just scroll through the pictures:
1. Pepperoni pizza-yes, if you ask for that you'll get pizza with sauteed peppers, but you can get pizza with salami piccante...not quite the same, but a reasonable substitute. I do love pepperoni pizza American style, fwiw. Wait, wait! By American style, I don't mean Pizza Hut or any of those spawns of the devil. I mean my neighborhood pizzeria run by a guy born and bred in Napoli. You can't get decent pizza even in California, and as for the south and midwest, a decent silence should be observed. Only recently can you get it in Florida, and only because a few Northeast U.S. guys have moved down there to be near their elderly retired parents. It's like bagels...I miss them when I'm out of the northeast.
2. Ziti Alfredo-An abomination, imo, but I think they're wrong that it was invented in the U.S. I heard that an "Alfredo" sauce was created in a Roman restaurant and put on tagliatelle, but not, thank God, with chicken in it. If there's a food disaster worse than this is when cooked in American restaurants, floppy, mushy pasta, drowned in a sea of cream, absolutely bland, and then dotted with packaged, overcooked and under-flavored chicken breast, I can't at the moment think of it.
3. Spaghetti Carbonara with cream-Of course you can get it, but it's not going to have cream in it...yikes...just imagine a tremendous shudder. However, to expect American cooks to make it with guanciale or pig cheek is a little too much. Even in New York I'd have to go way out of my way to get guanciale. Heck, even in parts of Italy it's not available everywhere, every time. Pancetta is a perfectly acceptable substitute.
4. Garlic Bread-It's true; so far as I know, it's not Italian. It's good, though.
5. Ham and pineapple pizza-Unfortunately, I have seen it in a few places, but it's undoubtedly because they're catering to some tourists; it was in Firenze, which is full of foreign touriss. I'm obviously a very bad mother, though, because my son eats it. :ashamed2:
6. Spaghetti with meatballs-Every time I see this written on the net a few Italian Americans will pipe up that they serve it in their ancestral village in Italy, usually in the Abruzzi. I beg leave to doubt; it's probably backflow. Even if it's not, it's extremely rare. Polpette are an appetizer, or a main dish, and not drowned like the spaghetti in a vat of "red" sauce.
7. "Italian Dressing"-if you poured it out of a bottle on to your salad, it's not Italian.
8. Spaghetti Bolognese-This is what I mean when I say they're a little too precious. You can indeed order tagliatelle or fettuccine(never spaghetti) with ragu' alla Bolognese, which means sauce Bologna style. Also, while the traditional Bologna style is almost all meat with just a little bit of tomato paste, even they make other versions that have more tomato in it, and our meat ragu in Lunigiana and Toscana.
alla bolognese-purists say not even tomato paste, but most people do this...
alla genovese:
The above are basically tinted meat sauces.
alla toscana-this is basically what we do...has a little bit more tomato, but it's not "tomato sauce with meat"; it's meat sauce with some tomato, unlike what foreigners do...
9. Macaroni and Cheese-Come on, nobody thinks that's Italian.
10. Panini-Well, you can order them, but what you'll get is a "dry" sandwich with some cured meat, probably less than what you're used to. You'd be better off ordering tremezzini, and asking to have them grilled, if possible.