To 10 Italian cuisinea - Ranked by food author Howard Hillman

Top 10 Italian
food regions

Food tips you can trust

Italy's top 10
cuisine regions
and their main cities

Click blue links for descriptions

Emilia Romagna Bologna
Tuscany Florence
Latium Rome
Lombard Milan
Piedmont Torino
Veneto Venice
Campania Naples
Sicily Palermo
Sardinia Cagliari
Liguria Genoa

A famous food
from each Italian
cuisine region

Put these foods on your must-eat list

Ragu

Emalia-RomagneBologna

Pork is the chief meat ingredient in the renowned Ragu sauce. This thick, rich, and complex tomato sauce is ideally suited for pasta. Ragu is often called "Bolognese sauce", named after the region's leading city.

Bistecca alla Fiorentina

TuscanyFlorence

A thick, choice steak cut from the local Chianina cattle, charcoal broiled and flavored with olive oil, salt and pepper.

Fettuccine al Burro

Latium Rome

Also known as Fettuccine Alfredo or alla Romana. Flat ribbon-shaped pasta is tossed, generally, with cream, butter and cheese, then given a good sprinkling of freshly ground peppercorns

Osso Buco

Lombard Milan

A veal shank braised with tomato, onion, stock and wine, then topped with Gremolata, a garnish made with parsley, garlic and lemon rind. The choicest morsel in Osso Buco ("hole in bone") is the cooked marrow clinging to the hollow of the bone.

Fonduta

Piedmont Torino

It's made by melting Fontina cheese (from the neighboring Val d'Aosta region) with milk, butter and eggs. The cook tops the resulting "fondue" with sliced white truffles.

Fegato alla Veneziana

Veneto Venice

Though meat dishes are a minority in Venice, one is world famous: Fegato alla Veneziana, tissue-thin calves' liver slices sauteed with onions.

Calzone

Campania Naples

Deep-fried, crescent-shaped dough stuffed (usually) with ham-flecked mozzarella cheese.

Caponata

Sicily Palermo

Chopped vegetables such as eggplant (the most essential ingredient), tomatoes, onions, green peppers, olives, and celery individually cooked in olive oil, then combined.

Carta de Musica

Sardinia Caglieri

Literally, music paper. It's a thin, crisp, circular flatbread. Also called pane carasau by inlanders and pane fresa by coastal denizens.

Pesto

Liguria Genoa

The region of Liguria is the birthplace of pesto, that fragrant, thick, green sauce that is now prepared by cooks around the world. Pesto is made by pounding its ingredients together with a pestle (hence, the name) in a mortar. The essential ingredients are basil, garlic, Parmesan and Sardinian ewe's milk cheeses, along with pine nuts and olive oil.

Does "Italian cuisine" exist?

Italian cuisine is only a generalized concept embracing the country's 20 distinct regional cuisines. Each area has it own cooking style and personality. To truly know Italian cuisine, you must know its regional cuisines.