Giada De Laurentiis Names What Most Americans Miss About Italian Food - Tasting Table

"In the United States, geography and location have a lot to do with the shape of local culture, like accents, architecture, and especially food. Costal environments like the Pacific Northwest and New England tend to lean heavily in to their abundance of oysters, crab, and lobster, while in landlocked areas like Colorado and Kansas, you're more likely to see meat-based cuisine focused on beef and even bison and elk. Knowing how much local foods are shaped by the proximity of ingredients, it's a surprise that some Americans don't translate this idea to other countries, especially ones famous for their cuisine."

"In an interview with the "Milk Street Radio" podcast, chef Giada De Laurentiis points out that many Americans overlook the vast regionality in Italian food. "Still to this day," says De Lauentiis, "a lot of Americans don't realize that Italian food ... it's very, very regional, the way they make things." Lasagna, for example, differs widely between the north and the south of Italy, like whether ricotta or béchamel is used in the layered pasta dish. De Laurentiis explains that this difference stems from "different traditions based on hundreds of years of people coming in and putting their sort of touch on them.""

"Like people in many countries, Italians have always leaned in to using local ingredients. In the north of Italy, dishes tend to be heartier, with more butter and dairy, compared to the south, where olive oil is much more predominantly used than butter. De Laurentiis says this is due to the varying availability in each region. "The north has more cows, the south doesn't have a lot of cows," De Laurentiis mentions. "... They have olive trees and olive groves.""

Geography and local ingredient availability strongly shape regional cuisines, as seen across the United States and in Italy. Italian cooking varies significantly by region: northern dishes use more butter and dairy, while southern cooking relies more on olive oil and Mediterranean crops. Specific dishes reflect regional differences, such as lasagna variations that use either ricotta or béchamel depending on locale. These variations result from centuries of local traditions, historical influences, and the practical presence or absence of ingredients like cows or olive groves across different Italian regions.

Read at Tasting Table