Italian cuisine has evolved extensively over the centuries. Although the country known as Italy today had not officially formed until the 19th century, the cuisine can claim roots going back as far as 4th century BC. Through various influences throughout the centuries, including neighboring regions, conquerors, high-profile chefs, political upheavals as well as the discovery of the New World, a concrete cuisine has formed to what is known today as one of the premiere cuisines in the world. The Italian we hear was not commonly spoken by a majority of the population until after World War II, and Italians still identify themselves regionally before all else. Every town has a distinctive way of making sausage, special kinds of cheese and wine, and a local type of bread. If you ask people, even in the same area, how to make pasta sauce, they will all have different answers. Variations in the pasta are another example of this: soft egg noodles in the north, hard-boiled spaghetti in the south, with every conceivable variation in size and shape. In spite of regional differences, Italian food in general is often characterized as being flexible and innovative, its amazing how all these were produced in the same country: the rich, fat, baroque food of Bologna, based on butter, parmigiano, and meat; the light, tasty, spicy cooking of Naples, mainly based on olive oil, mozzarella, and seafood; the cuisine of Rome, rich in produce from the surrounding countryside; and the food of Sicily, full of North African influences.For all of its variation and its celebrated incarnation in the home, Italian cuisine has had a profound influence on cooking and eating throughout Europe, and particularly in France. In 1533, Catherine de Médicis married the future Henry II of France and brought to her new home cooks and pastry-makers who lay the groundwork for French haute cuisine. Moreover, it seems that the Italians were the first in Europe to use a fork (Venetians) and the first to consider both the order of courses -- which presented an array of dishes -- and the relationship of the dishes served (Florentines). And, finally, these busy Italians brought sweets, preserves, and fruit pastes to the western world. Separated from the great trading routes with northern Europe, the south suffered greater poverty and isolation. The people of southern Italy made the best of what they had. But it is here, in southern Italy, that spectacular dishes like spaghetti and pizza, originated. Born as the poor people’s way of cooking, these dishes were exported by groups of Italian emigrants and disseminated outside their regions of origin, making them extremely popular everywhere. Dry pasta is the greatest contribution from southern Italy.Local traditions result from long complex historical developments and strongly influence local habits. Distinctive cultural and social differences remain present throughout Italy, although today mass marketing tends to cause a leveling of long-established values. In a country so diverse, it is impossible to define an “Italian� cooking style, but traditional food still is at the core of the cultural identity of each region, and Italians react with attachment to their own identity when they are confronted with the tendency toward flattening their culture.

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