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In 2011, Oxfam carried out a survey that revealed that Italian food is the world’s 9th favourite food type, with pasta voted number one overall. This love of Italian food is also shared in the UK, with around 4700 Italian restaurants across the country, four of which currently hold a Michelin star, and dry and fresh pasta sales amounting to £282m a year. The first thing that often springs to mind when people talk about Italian food is pizza, with the vast number of other dishes available often forgotten about. What you should remember, however, is that Italy is a large country, made up of many different regions, each with their own special cuisine, ingredients and cooking styles. One of the most defining characteristics of Italian cuisine is its extreme simplicity and the use of just a handful of ingredients, making the food ideally suited for home cooking. These ingredients differ considerably depending on the region of Italy the recipe originates from. Regardless of the region, cheese and wine play a major part in Italian cookery, as well as coffee, specifically espresso. Fish, especially cod, is common in North Italian recipes, alongside potatoes, rice, pork and a range of cheeses. While pasta dishes using light tomato sauces are found in parts of this region, stuffed pasta, polenta and risotto are more popular. Fresh or cooked tomatoes, peppers, olives and garlic are among the main ingredients found in Southern Italian cookery. Ricotta cheese, fish such as anchovies, sardines and tuna, and capers are also important components in this region. Finally, in traditional central Italian cuisine, ingredients such as tomatoes, pecorino cheese and all kinds of meat and fish are key to home cooked dishes, and in some areas pasta is usually served with a tomato sauce with peperoncini hot peppers. Pasta is without doubt the most popular ingredient in Italian cookery, with some 600 different types and shapes available, with each region cooking it differently. Some of the most widely used varieties in the UK include penne, spaghetti, linguine and lasagne. Filled varieties such as ravioli and tortellini are also popular as are traditional alternatives, such as gnocchi and polenta. As the popularity of Italian cookery continues to grow in the UK, as does the demand for Italian cookery classes, where students not only want to master the art of pasta making, but want to produce traditional dishes such as chicken scarpiello with pancetta roasted potatoes and spring greens and wild mushroom risotto with parmesan crisps. These courses use the very freshest ingredients and provide tutoring from some of the UK’s top Italian chefs, students are shown that there really is much more to Italian cookery than pizza, and number of simple yet tasty Italian recipes is massive. So don’t limit yourself to pizza or spag bol – explore new dishes and ingredients, and as the Italians themselves would say, Buon appetito! The Cookery School at Braxted Park is a cookery school in the heart of Essex that provides Italian cookery classes such as Daring Italian and Authentic Italian are always booked up months in advance so contact us at 01621 890300 or visit http://www.braxtedparkcookery.co.uk/ to secure your place.
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