Unpopular opinions

Never understood the obsession with pasta and pizza , it’s average food no matter how or who is cooking it

 

Garlic is yuk, gives me shivers just typing this

 

Have you been to Italy? Real Neapolitan pizza is something you're unlikely to ever forget.

 

Said it before and I'll say it again. Grilled salad tomatoes on an English. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Or grilled salad tomatoes on owt.
Salad tomatoes = salad, enough said.

 

Yes , Naples ,Florence ,Rome ,Cinque Terra ,Padua ,Vicenza ,Venice , had some excellent food but pizza and pasta not on of my list of top Italian gastronomy

 

Tourist!! Venice- Overpriced crap by and large - not sure it is even 'Italy' Venice is ...well........err...........Venice

 

Italian food is brilliant and diverse for sure, but for me it's difficult to top the simplicity of a proper margherita pizza made with top quality ingredients.

 

You're not really "fearless" are you?

 

Mustard with Bacon/Sausage sarnies and pork pies.

 

That would be the best username on this, and most other football message boards in the country.

 

You win that with Merde Tete!
I have O level French lol

 

I bow to your superior knowledge as a local, however to me a bolognese sauce is made primarily from mince, carrots, onions and celery and should be paired with a thick shaped pasta - either ribbon or a smaller shape such as a shell. Anyway it's just an opinion, life would be boring without them.

 

Nay, nay and thrice nay

 

There is no helping some people

 

You are describing a pretty good ragu recipe there but don't forget the nutmeg which is the primary spice. Many people think it is dried Oregano that should be added but ground nutmeg (used sparingly) is what gives it it's authentic flavour. The thing with 'long' pastas like spaghetti, linguini is to buy good stuff that has been 'extruded' using a bronze die. It is very rough to the touch -almost like sandpaper if you run it between your finger and thumb- and sauce clings to its so you dont end up with a pool of sauce at the bottom of your bowl when you have eaten all the pasta. Budget cheap pasta just doesn't cut it.

 

Poof!

 

I always wondered why some pasta was rough! Would never have guessed it was to make sauce stick to it, even though it makes perfect sense now you've said it.

As for the nutmeg, I'll give it a try. Elizabeth David's recipe which originates from Bologna in the early part of the 20th century contains quite a bit of chicken liver and very little tomato. It's very good, but quite different to my usual anglicised version.

 

When I first moved to Italy in the 90s, some of my colleagues and I went to watch Inter then afterwards went to a pizzeria in Monza, where, knowing how conservative Italian culture is, we ordered pizzas with pineapple, for comedy value. The pizzeria was full and honestly, the whole place turned around to stare at us. It was as if Beyonce had walked into the place . ( Actually Cicciolina, Italian porn star of that time later did walk in! )

You could hear them muttering to each other 'Stranieri' (foreigners). I think the fact that we were also wearing Inter shirts might have doubled the interest.