eating pizza pasta york, italian, restaurant, york, best, food, eating, pizza, pasta, classic, hand, tossed, cuisine, family, friendly, restaurant, central, location, cafe, uk, spagetti, eating pizza pasta york

Italian cuisine is extremely varied: the country of Italy was only officially unified in 1861, and its cuisines reflect the cultural variety of its regions and its diverse history (with culinary influences from Greek, Roman, Gallic, Germanic, Goth, Norman, Lombard, Frank, Turkish, Hebrew, Slavic, Arab and Chinese civilizations). Italian cuisine is imitated all over the world.

To a certain extent, there is really no such thing as Italian cuisine in the way that one usually understands national cuisines. Each area has its own proud specialties, primarily at regional level, but also even at provincial level. Italian cuisine is not only highly regionalised, it is very seasonal. The high priority placed on the use of fresh, seasonal produce distinguishes the cuisine of Italy from the imitations available in most other countries.

Roman cuisine, for example, uses a lot of pecorino (sheep milk cheese) and offal (frattaglie, frattaje in dialect), while Tuscan cooking features white beans, meat, and unsalted bread. Pizza also varies across the country, the crusts of pizzas in Rome are thin as crackers, while Neapolitan pizza and Sicilian pizza is thicker. The influence of Northern Italian cuisine can be seen in French and German cuisines. Piedmont and Lombardy each grow their own different kinds of rice, which are used to make risotto. The North of Italy is the home of polenta. Emilia-Romagna is known for lasagna and tortellini (stuffed pasta), mortadella, prosciutto, basalmic vinegar, Bolognese sauce (ragu), and parmigiano (parmesan cheese). Naples (Napoli) is the home of pizza, mozzarella cheese and pastries (babà, sfogliatelle). Calabria's cuisine uses a lot of hot pepper for its distinctive salami (that are common, in several varieties, throughout the country) and uses capsicum. Sicily is the home of gelato (ice cream) and granita but its cuisine also has many influences from Arab cuisine (lemon, pistachio) and also includes fish (tuna, swordfish). Sardinia is famous for lamb and pecorino.

Traditional Italian cuisine is very regional and does not follow strict North-South patterns. To most, northern and southern Italian cuisines are differentiated primarily by the north using more butter and creams and the south more tomato and olive oil. In general terms, however, there is a marked difference between regional use of cooking fat and traditional style of pasta. Inland northern and north-eastern regions tend to favour more butter, cream, polenta, mascarpone, grana padano, and parmigiano cheeses, risotto, lasagna and fresh egg pasta. Coastal northern and central regions are somewhat of a bridge between north and south and often use tortellini, ravioli and are known for prosciutto. The southern regions are known for mozzarella, caciocavallo, and pecorino cheeses, olive oil, and dried pasta. Southern Italian cuisine also makes far greater use of the ubiquitous tomato.

Italians celebrate each holiday with a different cuisine, each in turn having a specific meaning.

At Christmas Italians often serve tortellini as a first course. The typical cake of the Christmas season is panettone.

On Christmas Eve a symbolic fast is observed (the so-called "cena di magro", the "light dinner") excluding meat but including many courses which are not by any means light, based mainly on fish and other seafood, but also on snails, even frogs, which curiously enough are not considered "meat".