Did you know that some people believe pasta was first invented in China? Whether it was or not, Italian recipes for pasta go back a long, long time, so obviously if they didn’t invent this food, they adopted it as soon as traders introduced it to them. And they really ran with the concept too, which is why we associate so many pasta recipes with Italy. Countless fish and meat recipes for pasta, as well as their sauces, will forever be associated with Italy in most people’s minds.

Different regions of Italy have always produced different types of food, and this is partly why an Italian recipe can vary so much when it comes to pasta. Recipes that originate in the northern regions will reflect early German and Roman cultures, while the south was more influenced by Arab trade, which carried Mediterranean influences quite widely.

The northern dishes will consist of more pork recipes, fish, sausages and cheeses. Foods of central Italy tend more toward ham, sausage, tomatoes and tortellini. To the south, you’ll also find tomatoes, with olives, peppers, garlic, artichokes, zucchini and capers.

Two websites illustrate in detail the connection of Italian recipes with the different regions of the country. The e-rcps.com website posts a “Chicken Stuffed Ravioli with Cream and Butter Sauce” recipe as an example of northern cuisine, from the region of Emilia-Romagna. The Italian Made website, meanwhile, has “Perciatelli e Lumache” as an example from the southern Calabrian region; this recipe features pasta tubes and snails in a tomato pepper sauce. From complex to simple Italian dishes, the regional variations still usually hold true.

The first thing most people think of when contemplating Italian recipes is tomatoes. Yet that’s not entirely fair to the distinctive cuisine of this country. Italian food was rich in variety and regional tradition long before the tomato entered the picture in the early 1800s. People interested in Italian pasta might find it interesting to explore beyond the tomato-laden dishes, and learn some of the other food traditions that have existed throughout Italy’s history.

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