Italian cuisine is essentially Mediterranean although it has borrowed heavily from other countries and regions over the years and evolved into what is now widely known as “modern Italian cuisine” or “contemporary Italian cuisine. For example, after the Americas were colonized by the Europeans, ingredients like sugar beet, capsicums, tomatoes, maize, and potatoes were introduced into traditional Italian cooking. 

Widely acclaimed for its regional diversity, Italian cuisine offers a variety of tastes and flavours. As a result, people have all over the world have derived inspiration from it. Italian dishes have influenced a wide range of cuisines from different parts of the world, especially the US.  

Traditionally, Italian dishes were known for their simplicity. Conventional Italian cooks don’t use more than four ingredients per dish as they give more importance to the quality and freshness of the ingredients than on elaborate ways of cooking. The quantity and number of ingredients used vary from one region to the other although dishes that were regional once upon a time have now been adapted to the tastes and preferences of people from all over the country.  

Modern Italian Cuisine  

The focus of cookbooks written across Italy in the early eighteenth century was on regional diversity. Early eighteenth-century culinary periodicals like The Cook of Cremona provided lists of seasonal ingredients along with chapters dedicated to vegetables, fish, and meat. These periodicals, which were in the form of booklets at the beginning of the century, became bigger and colourful and gained more popularity as the years passed.   

In the late eighteenth century, Antonio Nebbia spoke about the importance of using fresh local vegetables and gnocchi, rice, and pasta in his book “The Cook of Macerata.” In his book, he expressed his preference for chicken and vegetable stock. Also, another cookbook of the time titled “The Courteous Cook” and written by Vicenzo Corrado spoke of the benefits of becoming a vegetarian.  

The book also contained 13 recipes with tomato as the chief ingredient. One of the recipes bears a strong resemblance to the modern Tuscan Pappa al pomodoro.  In 1798, another edition of “The Courteous Cook” was published. This time, it included a section titled “Treatise on the Potato.”  

In the nineteenth century, King Victor Emmanuel’s chef Giovanni Vialardi wrote “A Treatise of Modern Cookery and Patisserie.” It contained several recipes for regional dishes. The main ingredient of twelve of these dishes was potato.  

In 1829, Giovanni Felice Luraschi wrote a cookbook focusing on Milanese recipes like gnocchi alla Romana and kidney with lemon and anchovies. In 1871, Giovanni Ratto and Gian Battista wrote a cookbook featuring the recipes of Liguria. It was the first book to contain a recipe for pesto. Also, Ippolito Cavalcanti’s cookbook of the same time was the first book to present a recipe for pasta with tomatoes.  

Pellegrino Artusi’s “The Science of Cooking and the Art of Eating Well,” published in 1981, is held to be a classic on modern Italian cuisine. The book, which is still in print, contains the recipes of Tuscany and Romagna.  

Father of Contemporary Italian Cuisine  

Over the years, Italian cuisine has evolved a lot, and the credit for this goes to the master chef Gualtiero Marchesi. He dared to break several rules of traditional Italian cuisine, created new rules of his own, and taught several aspiring cooks to ensure that his new rules would never be broken.  

Widely acclaimed as the father of modern Italian cuisine, Marchesi revolutionized the way Italians cooked and ate their food. Today, his disciples continue to follow his methods. This master chef not only mastered the science of cooking but also successfully transformed it into art.  

Marchesi spent the late twentieth century refining his ideas of Italian cuisine, including the ways the table is set and the food is served. His culinary philosophy is based on simplicity, quality of ingredients, and technique. He loved his kitchen but took time to emerge from it to bring his unique dishes to the table and serve it in innovative and sometimes dramatic ways. For example, he would cut meat right in front of the guests. His dishes soon became unique works of art.  

Here is a list of some of his best dishes:  

• Risotto Oro e Zafferano – Also called Risotto Gold and Saffron, this unique dish features edible gold leaves decorated over the rice.  
• Raviolo Aperto – Also called Open Raviolo, this dish comprises a couple of sheets of pasta dough, one flavoured with spinach and one plain, topped with flavourful filling.  
• Dripping di Pesce – Invented in 2004 in honour of Jackson Pollock, the painter who used the dripping technique in his paintings, this dish has a splash of colours on a base of light mayonnaise. The chef achieved the colourful effect by adding tomatoes for red, clams and squid for white, cuttlefish ink for black, and parsley for green.  
• Seppia in Nero – This is a dish made of white cuttlefish, which looks rather attractive in a backdrop of its ink.  

3 Modern Italian Recipes  

If you visit the best restaurants in Italy, you will come across several modern Italian recipes. These dishes are essentially Italian but not as we know them. The chefs who created them had to break several rules before they could come out with these masterpieces.  

Let us have a look at three such recipes.  

1. Fried Chicken All Diavola – A masterpiece of Chef Dan Pepperell, this dish requires at least 3 – 5 days of preparation. You have to begin well in advance to prepare the giardiniera, marinate the chicken, and ferment the chillies.   

You have to then fry the marinated chicken, place it in a bowl, pour diavola sauce over it, and toss the chicken pieces till they are coated with the sauce. Finally, serve it with shichimi togarashi and giardiniera.  

2. Parmesan Chawanmushi – This is a dish made of rosemary dashi, parmesan, soya sauce, and eggs. It is steamed and topped with lily root, prawns, and shiitake before being served.  

3. Frittata Carbonara – Make it a point to have this for breakfast if ever you find yourself in Italy. The main ingredients are eggs, spaghetti, pancetta, parmesan, and cream.  

You have to first boil the pasta and set it aside. Then whisk the eggs with parmesan and cream and seasoning. Fry the pancetta, pour the eggs and the cooked spaghetti over it, combine it well, and bake till it is golden and set. Usually, this dish is served with buttered toast and baby sorrel although these are optional.  

Also, try the Swordfish con sarde at Alberto’s Lounge, the clementine, chocolate and aniseed zaletti at Agostino’s, and the lasagne with romanesco by Sarah Cicolini, to mention a few.