The 3 big mistakes Brits make when cooking Italian food, reveals Tuscan chef
AN ITALIAN food blogger and cookbook author has revealed the biggest mistakes Brits make when cooking Italian food.
Giulia Scarpaleggia founded the blog Juls’ Kitchen, a podcast called Cooking with an Italian Accent and hosts Tuscan cooking classes.
From overcomplicating traditional dishes to buying the wrong ingredients, Giulia revealed the best tricks to make Italian food taste as good as when you’re there.
Giulia told the Sun Online Travel: “The biggest mistakes foreigners make when cooking Italian food is adding unnecessary ingredients and overcomplicating recipes.
For instance, an Italian pasta dish that is becoming very popular abroad is Cacio e Pepe.
The dish is simple and fast to make, but Giulia has seen plenty of people making it wrong.
She said: “One of the worst things I have seen is people using heavy cream to achieve the traditional creamy texture of the sauce.
“The original recipe only uses two ingredients: the ‘cacio’ (cheese – normally using pecorino romano) and ‘pepe’ (pepper).
“There is absolutely no need to add cream – all you have to do is use some pasta water to emulsify your pecorino cheese and pepper mixture and add it to the pasta once.
“The most important thing to remember is that Italian food is simple.”
She revealed that another big mistake is assuming some popular dishes are traditional to Italian cuisine.
She said: “For example, we would never make a ‘chicken parmigiana,’ the authentic parmigiana is made with vegetables – most commonly with aubergines.
“And lasagne doesn’t have ricotta or heavy cream in the filling, they are made with bechamel sauce.”
Not specific to any particular Italian recipe, Giulia told us that foreigners tend to add “way too much garlic.”
Her biggest tip is to “be generous with the olive oil instead – that’s where we get all our flavour from.”
In her observations, Giulia believes that “it is also crucial to remember that real Italians don’t always eat what you find in the restaurants at home,” and there are plenty of easy dishes you could start practising.
Her simple go-to dish is “pasta al pomodoro,” but the trick is to make the sauce yourself instead of buying it premade.
All you need to achieve the traditional flavour is “tomato passata, olive oil and basil – it is that simple.”
Another tip is to buy the best ingredients you can afford, as their quality will significantly impact your recipes’ taste.
She said: “It is very important to pick seasonal recipes; that way, you’re more likely to find good quality products at a reasonable price and nail the taste.”
For more expert views, we rounded up the three big mistakes tourists make in Spain, according to a British ex-pat.
Another travel expert revealed the mistakes people make abroad and how to avoid them.
And if you’re planning a holiday, here are the biggest holiday mistakes that could cost you money.