Food · Posted 2 minutes ago 7 'Italian' Dishes That These Native Italian Chefs Will Never, Ever Order There are some strong feelings about fettuccine Alfredo. by Taylor Tobin HuffPost Writer Link Facebook Pinterest Twitter Mail Westend61 via Getty Images If you’ve ever headed to a restaurant in the Little Italy section of an American city and sat down at a checkered tablecloth, there’s a good chance the dish you ordered wasn’t Italian at all. Instead, it likely fell into a culinary category known as “Italian American.
” Beloved dishes like chicken Parmesan, baked ziti, and basically the entire Olive Garden menu all qualify as Italian American. This cuisine focuses on dishes invented by Italian immigrants using ingredients readily available in the United States. “When Italians began to immigrate to the U.
S., most hailed from poor, rural backgrounds and their cooking was leaner with few ingredients, dishes were mostly vegetarian, and they basically used whatever was available to them,” explained Gennaro Contaldo , a celebrated London-based chef and cookbook author best known for mentoring Jamie Oliver during his Italian cooking education. He explained that when Italian immigrants made it to the United States “and saw the abundance of ingredients available to them, the dishes they had learned to cook back home began to stray from the ‘cucina povera’ into a richer, often meatier cuisine.
” Let’s be clear: Many people love Italian American cuisine and believ.
