The taste of Italy

Exploring the Italian Art of Flavor and Balance

Feb 25, 2024

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Pappardelle with roasted asparagus and tomato sauce, a wonderful spring pasta featuring a typical Italian flavor profile

The revelation of cooking by elements

For many years I have been looking to determine the factors that identify Italian food. What is it that makes it “taste like Italy”? How can I teach you to create or reproduce a dish that connects to your memories of your time here?

This interest, or rather obsession, started with my first trip to Thailand in 2006.

Myself in 2008 all dressed up for the wedding of our dear friends Nok and Hein in Chiang Mai, Thailand

By then, I had already experienced the cuisines of several countries in Europe, America, Africa, and Asia.

However, it was the first time that I heard a cuisine described as a combination of characteristic elements of flavor: Salty, Sour, Sweet and Spicy. This was common knowledge for Thai food, but I had never seen it applied anywhere else with such clarity.

With the family and our dear friends Dave and Yumiko at a cooking class in Bangkok. Note that Tea was only 13 and already significantly taller than me!

Obviously there are many other factors that define Thailand’s world-class cuisine: it’s fresh, flamboyant, fragrant, steeped in tradition and rich in regional variations.

But still, the act of adjusting food flavor in Thailand follows specific rules which are local and which everyone seems to know.

On the table of every restaurant that is not a tourist trap, you will find a tray with soy sauce (salt/umami), sugar and chili often marinated in vinegar (sour/spicy). And if you observe the Thai people at the table, you will see them regularly using those ingredients to adjust the dish to their taste.

There was something else that appeared on the table, especially in places only frequented by Thais: a tall container full of fresh herbs —typically coriander and basil—to use as topping for a dish and a handful of raw green beans and slices of raw cabbage to munch upon. Always masters of flavor, Thais know by tradition that adding a bitter element (herbs, vegetables) cleanses the palate and improves the food’s sensory appreciation.

Understanding Italian food flavors

Cooking by elements is no news in 2024. The internet is full of flavor charts. In 2017, Samin Nosrat of “Salt Acid Fat Heat” explained brilliantly how to use elements and technique instead of recipes to succeed in any style of home cooking.

However, all cuisines differ because of history, geography, and availability of ingredients. To succeed in cooking Italian food is necessary to achieve a deeper knowledge of its cooking techniques, of the ingredients and to know how to balance the flavors.

Sprinkling oregano - or a mound of cheese - onto a dish does not automatically make it Italian.

What is a perfect Italian dish

A perfect savory Italian dish is relatively simple in execution but complex and balanced in flavor.

The complexity is mostly achieved by using excellent ingredients. The iconic “Cacio e Pepe” pasta is based on two ingredients, both deeply aromatic: Pecorino cheese and black pepper. An excellent Pecorino tastes sweet, salty, acidic and umami at the same time. Good quality pepper, e.g. Tellicherry, is not only pungent but also sweet, sour and subtly bitter thus completing the flavor profile.

In my experience, a prefect Italian savory dish achieves balance by encompassing all five primary tastes: sweet, salty, sour, bitter and, umami.

A classic meat ragù sauce is not only bursting with umami, but becomes sublime with the sweetness and acidity of tomato and onion. It is enriched by more umami and salt from the cheese and the slightly bitter tones of bay leaves, clove and black pepper.

As a consequence, cooking proper Italian food implies a change of mentality: rather than adding an ingredient “because I love … garlic, chili pepper, cream…?”, try to carefully plan a combination of ingredients that create harmony.

Examples of Italian ingredients according to flavor profile

Sweet: Sugar, honey, fruits, vegetables like carrot, caramelized onions, tomato, sweet peppers. The sweet ingredients will counteract bitter and sour flavors and cut down chili pepper heat. Butter is sweet too.

Salty: Salt balances against bitterness and brings out most other flavors present in a dish. Aged cheese, cured meats, capers, olives, anchovy taste both salty and umami.

Bitter: Italians enjoy all sort of bitter greens like radicchio, arugula, chicory, broccoli rabe, cavolo nero, asparagus and of course, artichokes. Olive oil and herbs like bay leaves, rosemary, and sage are slightly bitter. A bitter taste cleanses the palate - for example a cup of espresso at the end of a meal- and counteracts umami.

Sour: Vinegar, wine, grapes and citrus. Acidity counteracts sweetness and heat.

Umami: signals the presence of natural glutamate and it’s available in mushrooms, olives, capers, anchovy, garlic, onion, tomato, meat, fish, beans and many cheeses. Umami ingredients are used to enhance other flavors.

Obviously there is much more to flavor than just primary taste, I will return to it in due course.

What’s up

Artichokes are in season right now and if you happen to be in Italy you will have endless opportunities to appreciate the elegant bitterness of this vegetable which is so fundamental to Italian cuisine.

Beautiful artichokes at my neighborhood market in Rome. Right now we have an abundance of two varieties: the “Cimaroli” and the “Violetti” which you see in the background. The most prized Cimaroli come from Cerveteri, where artichokes were cultivated by the Etruscans around 2500 years ago.

What to cook this month

If you have access to fresh artichokes, I invite you to try preparing artichokes braised alla romana which are traditionally a side dish but I love to add to pasta or risotto. They are also great in combination with a vegetarian main like this onion and potato frittata.

Should you not have access to good quality artichokes, my friend Jack who lives in Southern California, recommends T.J. artichokes canned in water which he uses to make my artichoke sformato with quite splendid results.

In winter, it’s sometime difficult to eat enough vegetables in season. However, there is a life beyond cabbage, which can become overwhelming on a daily basis.

Fennel is fabulous right now, so I feast almost daily on the classic orange, fennel, and olives salad that I have just published on the blog.

I invite you to make the best of the bounty of leaf vegetables right now, super fresh mature spinach, cime di rapa, Swiss chard in all colors. Blanch briefly in boiling salted water, chop and freeze for the week to add to pasta and soup or sauté them with garlic, fennel seeds and olive oil to eat for lunch with just a slice of good pecorino cheese. One kg (2 lb) of greens is enough for 3 meals for 2.