St. Paddy's DayWe're doing a Beef and Guinness Pie tomorrow for the two of us, followed by a two-days-after-the-fact party with friends (schedule...
Wow! You are so lucky to a) get to go to Italy so often and b) get to eat with italian families. It's only my most fervent dream!
I think Italians are very regional and very proud of what they eat and how they make it in their own district. Despite being such a small country, there's not much fusing and blending. I've seen popular roman dishes eaten with tentative suspicion when brought to the south. I think American italian cooks, like a lot of tv really, are just trying to make what would be appealing to audiences and will more happily blend techniques and ingredients they've gathered from their cooking experiences. Here in Australia, we had a big fad of fusion - I called it 'con-fusion' - it mixed asian ingredients with Italian etc etc but everyone is pretty over it now.
I think a good cookbook will be able to tell you the main difference between regions, eg spicier in the south and dishes particular to the different regions. I grew up in Sydney's little Italy and loved grabbing and aranchini after school but when I travelled Italy, starting from North to South, I realised when I got to Sicily, where I spotted my first aranchini, that I probably grew up in little sicily, rather than the Australian-imposed label of little italy. Italians have told me that outsiders think Italian food is one cuisine but Italians are very aware of the regional distinctions.
tinny
