OMG that pizza. I need that in my life, pronto.

My niece went to Italy last year and took a week long artisan food tour where she learned to make amazing authentic Italian dishes. She always invites us over when she's making homemade ravioli (which she learned how to make from an "Italian mamma"!) and it has become my favorite Italian dish ever! It's amazing how much better homemade pasta tastes! I hope to be able to take a tour myself so I can learn the secrets!

http://www.sapori-e-saperi.com/tours-a-courses/15-small-group-tours

I'm Italian-American, and my dinners consist of a simple seasonal vegetable preparation. This time of year, for example, I might make a fritata with zucchini and corn, or green beans cooked down with tomatoes and olive oil. In the winter I might roast root vegetables or make a kale and white bean stew. These sorts of dishes are more Italian to me than the carb, cheese, and meat-laden things people typically associate us with.

I love Southern Italian flavors - it's bolder and more intense than Northern Italian. http://7th-taste.com/2010/12/06/sicilian-meatballs-nero-davola-italian-red-wine/

Try to pronounce vowels at the end of words and Not to use "S" for plural.
Now you are matching the food with the perfect names.
Everything sounds great.
Buon appetito!
pier.

Great list. It's inspired me to re-introduce a few of these dishes into my regular lineup. Love Italian dishes; detest tomato sauce. Sound contradictory? It's not really. There's nothing better than a sun ripened tomato but I find most tomato based sauces overwhelm the other ingredients. It's like drinking a bottle of ketchup (which is ok in moderation but it's a condiment not a main dish!) Maybe my taste buds are hyper-sensitive but if that's all I can taste, why bother:

Years ago, I began making my own FRESH tomato sauce. Adults loved it & often asked for my 'secret'. (ha - the secret was, there was no secret, it was just fresh tomatoes). All the kids, on the other hand, swore tomatoes were the yukkiest thing ever & refused to eat it. Yup, the same ones who smothered every meal with ketchup, breakfast, lunch & dinner.

They eventually outgrew their dislike for tomatoes. But somewhere along the way, love of Italian dishes got suppressed. No more. Gonna work my way through this entire list...beginning with my signature lasagna tomorrow night. Dh will be thrilled.

I am gluten-free so the sausage and peppers appears to be the only dish I can eat although they all look yummy. Engineergirl's post is helpful..

@engineergirl

Unless you hold dual citizenship then you can not be "Italian-American." If you are an American with no other citizenship then you are simply American. Just because a person's ancestors were Italian doesn't make them Italian. I wish Americans would stop saying things like that. I'm Irish, I'm Italian, etc. No, you re not.

As for the food, I think even though pizza originated in Italy the best pizza comes from America, more specifically in the New York area. That's coming from someone who has eaten plenty of pizza in Italy. Traditional pizza from Italy is bland and uninteresting in comparison.

Italian ingredients are great when I'm lazy and on my own. I like to make a large batch of roasted veg, and sometimes I'll just graze on that with some prosciutto, buffalo mozzarella, sundried tomatoes, and artichokes in oil. No cooking, yet satisfying.

@JDoey: It's called being proud of and celebrating your heritage. Get over it.

American refers to a nationality only. It doesn't speak to any sort of ethnicity, though, or any particular culture, which people absolutely have a right to claim. I'm american, 100% But no one would disagree that when you look at me, you see a black woman (whose lineage clearly is derived from somplace in Africa). Hence, although I don't often use this term, African American is absolutely an accurate descriptor for me, and to discard the first half of it and say "I'm only American" would be a fallacy indeed. Italian American? Fine by me!

one of my favorites is risotto, but I discovered I liked it even more when I replaced arborio rice with pearled barley. so, so good, and I use whatever veggies are in season at the time. http://www.katesshortandsweets.com/2012/06/baked-barley-risotto-with-vegetables.html

@jdoey you don't know nothing at all about italy's traditions, keep having your ssssooooo gooood and TRADITIONAL burgers for dinner and enjoy it.

By the way, "Fettuccine Alfredo" is a funny thing: is absolutely unknown in Italy and the idea to go to a restaurant to eat what is actually pasta with butter is for Italians amusing. The "recipe" was "invented" in Rome for a group of rich American tourists at a time when going on holiday was rare and Italy very fashionable. The Americans were nonetheless impressed by this housewife recipe and going back home they spread the word. And so came that "pasta, butter, parmigiano" became the famous "pasta Alfredo".

Maybe was, at the time, the food in US not very appealing and Parmigiano, the real thing, especially when is fresh from the form, very, very tasty. Who knows?

I absolutely love a good risotto that is nice and creamy and spreads out on the plate- this squash blossom risotto that I made recently was just perfect. I've been making this red wine spaghetti with broccoli rabe for many years, and it's always a go-to weeknight favorite. This spicy pasta with crab was a Mario Batali recipe that I adapted and it also became a fast favorite! And of course, the classic, spaghetti and meatballs-- you can't go wrong! Zucchini in agrodolce is our go-to vegetable many weeknights during the summer, as well.