Pasta, pizza, parmesan cheese - we have Italy to thank for some of our favourite foods. Home to a dazzling array of wines, cheeses, breads, vegetables and salamis, Italy has become a mecca for foodies. Outside Italy, cities around the world are home to Michelin-starred Italian restaurants and television chefs extol the virtues of Italian cuisine, presenting it as a model of fresh and healthy eating. Taking readers across the country's regions and beyond, Al Dente explores how Italy's cuisines became what they are today. For centuries, southern Mediterranean countries such as Italy fought against food scarcity, wars, invasions and an unfavourable agricultural environment. Lacking meat and dairy, Italy developed foodways that depended on grains, legumes and vegetables until a stronger economy in the late 1950s allowed the majority of Italians to afford a more diverse diet. The last half century has seen new packaging, conservation techniques, industrial mass production and more sophisticated systems of transportation and distribution, bringing about profound changes in how the country's population thinks about food. Including historical recipes for delicious Italian dishes to enjoy alongside a glass of crisp Chianti, Al Dente is a fascinating history of what is perhaps the world's favourite cuisine.

About the Author
Fabio Parasecoli is Associate Professor and Coordinator of the Food Studies Program, The New School, New York, the author of Bite Me! Food in Popular Culture (2008) and co-editor of the six-volume Cultural History of Food (2012).

Reviews
'This cool analysis of the geopolitical background to the delights of Italian gastronomy is a welcome addition.' Gillian Riley, author of The Oxford Companion to Italian Food (2007)



Book Information
ISBN 9781780232768
Author Fabio Parasecoli
Format Hardback
Page Count 384
Imprint Reaktion Books
Publisher Reaktion Books