Italian food

[Mikiviki]

As I live in Italy my diet has changed considerably. Although over the years people here have unfortunately adopted some bad options such as hamburgers, food here is generally much healthier than U.K. and prepared from scratch.

[Zest]

Hi Mikiviki

Welcome to the Healthy eating forum. It's good to hear you're enjoying some healthy foods and enjoying preparing things from scratch - I hope you'll enjoy participating here, and maybe share some of your recipes and meals, if you want to.

Zest

[G1nny]

Please share a couple of recipes. I live in Texas so pretty much Mexican food and steakhouses. I love our food but would love to see authentic Italian food.

[Mikiviki in reply to G1nny]

It’s difficult to suggest a recipe as we all have different ingredients. Basically we use the best olive oil. Fresh vegetables and fruit. There are lots of cheeses to choose from ( famously mozzarella and parmiggiano reggiano which is sprinkled on pasta unless it contains sea food. ) goodness it’s difficult to know where to start.

[Cooper27 Administrator]

My Italian housemates definitely had a very different eating style! I never could get my head around the separation of carbs and meat, but I liked the idea of finishing every meal with a large salad for dessert

[Mikiviki in reply to Cooper27]

Wow. That must have been a personal thing. After all if you eat spaghetti bolognese ( meat sauce) you get carbs and proteins. Personally I am off meat as it’s not too good hear. And I guess I am a bit of a vegetarian at heart.

However most of my friends would rather go without a desert in favour of fruit. Despite this being the country where Nutella is made ( I saw the factory today, it is massive).

It’s also unusual to see kids eating crisps. If they have a tea time snack it’s usually a piece of focaccia. !

[G1nny in reply to Mikiviki]

Nutella factory! That’s amazing.i don’t even know what focaccia is!!

[Activity2004 Administrator in reply to G1nny]

Focaccia is a type of bread.

[andyswarbs in reply to Activity2004]

If you have access to Amazon Prime Video there is a series on vegan cooking, and one recipe is for focaccia bread. The secret being to let the dough prove overnight for both amazing flavour and texture.

[G1nny in reply to Activity2004]

Thanks

[Activity2004 Administrator in reply to G1nny]

Anytime!😀👍

[Activity2004 Administrator in reply to Mikiviki]

That’s very interesting information! Thank you for sharing it with everyone.😀👍

[Cooper27 Administrator in reply to Mikiviki]

No, it was two separate housemates, who I lived with a different times, so completely unrelated / un-influenced by each other!

It's not to say they wouldn't have salami on a pizza, but for example, one night, dinner would be 2 large steaks, with no accompaniments. The next night dinner would be pasta and pesto. Every night would be finished with a salad drizzled in olive oil.

I did notice they tended to eat biscuits/cakes for breakfast too, so not entirely treat free

[Mikiviki in reply to Cooper27]

Italian breakfast is mainly cappuccino and brioche which was probably why their breakfast was sweet. I only see Italians tucking into breakfast when at a holiday buffet!!!

[Cooper27 Administrator in reply to Mikiviki]

Perhaps it varies by region

[Want2BHappy3]

What's this to with anything?

[andyswarbs]

Well said. Preparing from scratch would be a big improvement. Here in the UK we are becoming, or have become dependant on cheap & pretty ready-made foods.

[Mikiviki]

Yes. Things get worse. However it is much cheaper to make your own. We get a bit lazy and make excuses why not to cook ( I do)

But it really is cheaper to make it at home and you know what you are putting into your food.