Did you ever tried to eat cheese with pears ? An old Italian proverb says: “Do not let the farmer know how good is to match cheese with the pears”.

You might not expect it, but coupling cheese and pears results in a perfect match. But what is the meaning of this strange proverb ? Why the farmer should not know the secret ?

The proverb comes from old times before the Middle Ages. The cheese was considered the food for the poor people at the times of the Greeks. It comes from milk and noble people were so crazy back at the ancient times to use it only for vanity purposes, for example the Roman women that used it for bathing in the Roman Baths. On the other hand the pear was very expensive and reserved for rich and noble people.

In the Middle Ages also the rich people started to eat cheese and milk, because some new concepts about food were growing. The rich society understood that cheese and milk derivatives were healthy food, but they wanted to reserve their social difference. Here it comes the proverb, because the rich people were eating cheese with pears, but they didn’t want to share this habit with the farmers that were poor.

It is a funny story from the middle ages, and now this proverb does not make too much sense But still, if you never tried before in your life you should eat pears and cheese !!!

Formaggio e pere

It might sound crazy but a typical food in the city of Rome is pizza and figs: “Pizza e fichi”. Don’t ask for pizza and figs away from Rome, because it is something very typical just in this city.

This meal, prepared especially in the summer, has its roots in the popular poor cousine, because it is something you can prepare with very little money. I would suggest to prepare and bring it to the beach, because it is good sweet and fresh, and you can have your lunch with it.

To eat “pizza e fichi” just buy some white pizza, and cut it to separate the bottom and the top to fill the inner part. Get the necessary figs and smash them in the pizza to have something similar to a film of marmalade. If you want, you can add also some slice of prosciutto that bind to this flavour extremely well. In one minute you should have in your hands something similar to the picture below:

Pizza and Figs – Pizza e Fichi

Today a striking earthquake hit the region of Modena and Bologna. We feel very sorry about this fact and we hope the best for all those people that are living terrible hours because of the earthquake.

Ashpazi Italiayi loves Emilia Romagna, and wants to show the best of this Italian region. We selected a video of Tortellini, that is a particular kind of pasta, where with a small slice of fresh pasta your wrap typically mix of meat (pork loin, prosciutto) or cheese. Originally from the Italian region of Emilia (in particular Bologna and Modena), they are usually served in soup.

May Day is an important celebration in Italy. Very popular is the Concerto del Primo Maggio (“1 May’s Concert”), organized by Italian Labour Unions in Rome in Piazza San Giovanni. It is attended by more than 500,000 people every year, because a lot of famous bands perform for free in the huge square in the middle of the San Giovanni neighborhood. The concert is usually broadcasted live on TV.

The folk tradition is to eat broad beans and pecorino cheese. These two typical products can be eaten either at home after the email, or in the country side, where a lot of people go to have a picnic under the first shining sun of the spring.

If you notice some small farmer’s trucks at the side of the country streets showing the sign “Fave & Pecorino” it is because they are selling directly their products.

It is very typical to read the menu of a restaurant in a foreign country and get completely lost at the first page.
In the Italian menu you will find the dishes divided in two main categories: Primi Piatti and Secondi Piatti.
These two terms should be always present, keep them in mind ! Let’s look at the all list:

Antipasti

We would call these starters in English. This is something to eat before your meal. It can be some prosciutto and mozzarella, or some fried vegetables. It is usually a small dish, that requires little time to get served. It will help waiting for the primo piatto that usually takes at least 15 minutes to be cooked and served.

Il piatto del giorno

At the beginning of the menu you can find Il piatto del giorno, usually written on a temporary paper that could be handwritten. This is the suggestion for the day, it is something that the restaurant suggests based on the fresh ingredients that were available at the local market in the morning. If this is something that you like we strongly suggest to order il piatto del giorno when available. You will eat something that is for sure available in a short time and cooked with fresh products. Some restaurants also have some dishes that are served only in particular days of the week.

It is also very usual to find indications like Giovedi Gnocchi (Thursday Gnocchi), Venerdi pesce (Friday fish) or Domenica Lasagna (Sunday Lasagna). These are dishes that the restaurant will prepare only one day per week, following Italian popular traditional culture.

Primi piatti

Here we are talking about pasta, or rice. Anything that is spaghetti, gnocchi, lasagna … it is considered a Primo Piatto, literally first dish. Italians always eat pasta in their meals

Foto di Ezio Zigliani - Tavolata in Cantina

Secondi piatti

Your main course. It can be either of meat of fish. Secondo piatto can be served with a contorno, that is a side dish of salad or other kind of vegetable. In some places il secondo piatto is served with some vegetables by default, but it depends on the place. It is better to ask if you don’t want to eat just a plain steak. To the people coming from Iran we also suggest to order the meat well cooked, in Italian ben cotta, because the Italian like to eat the steak not completely cooked, with the inner part very bloody, and we know that this is not really in the direction of the Iranian taste.

Dolci o Dessert and Coffee

In a good Italian restaurant we suggest to finish your meal with a good Dessert, in Italian Dolce. Our favourite is Tiramisù but make sure it is home made and not coming out from some supermarket box.

For Coffee do not order it in the restaurant. Walk out and step into the first Italian BAR you see, they have far better coffee than restaurants !

A lot of people from the Middle East never tasted wine (شراب). This comes from their cultural and religious background. However most of the people from Middle East that live in Europe usually change their habits, so is very common to meet Persian people drinking wine with their meals.
Here we want to give you a suggestion on what wine to choose for a first time drinker.

White Wine Glass

First of all you should know that white wine should be served with fish or sea food and red wine is served with meat dishes. You can brake this rule later, but start this way at the beginning.

The easy drinking white wine that we suggest is the Falanghina. This is a white wine from the region of Campania, very easy to find and not very expensive.

Images from Wikipedia – Falanghina wine

Speaking about red wine the good choice for beginners is Lambrusco, that is a sweet sparkling wine from the north of Italy. This is for sure a good choice to start to drink wine, the women will just love it ! The experts will tell you that Lambrusco is too sweet and they will never drink it, but this is a suggestion to a beginner Lambrusco is good to start !

Image from Wikipedia – Bottle of Lambrusco

Well, we hope you will enjoy drinking wine with your meals, please tell us if you tried Falanghina and Lambrusco, we are waiting for your comments

Prosciutto is a dry-cured ham. It is pork and it is not cooked, but it is not raw flash. It is very hard to explain what is prosciutto to people from middle east, because in these countries pork meet is not very common.

When we eat prosciutto we usually find it in fine slices like in the picture show here, and these slices can be cutted by hand or with a machine. But how is the process from the raw meat of the pig to these slices ?

Image from Wikipedia - Prosciutto di Parma

We selected from YouTube this very interesting video that explains how from the raw meat of pork you prepare the prosciutto. You might find unbelievable that it is just matter of preparing correctly the raw meat, cover it with salt, and wait for 1 year. If you cannot believe please look at the video !

The Spaghetti “Cacio e Pepe” is a traditional dish from the city of Rome, but also well known in Sicily. They are delicious, but also very easy to prepare worldwide because there are not special ingredients required. It is just very important to have Parmigiano cheese. If you cook them correctly, this kind of spaghetti looks creamy and juicy like in the picture. Let’s learn how to cook them ! To start you need 100g of pasta and 50g of parmigiano for each person you are serving. Of course you need a box of black pepper.

Spaghetti Cacio e Pepe

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Lady fingers are biscuits called in Italy “Savoiardi” from the region of Savoia. They are one of the ingredients of the famous sweet Tiramisu.

The English name comes from their shape that is similar to a finger. The biscuit is like a sponge cake and it is very sweet.

Images from Wikipedia - Biscotti Savoiardi nella preparazione del tiramisu