Italian cuisine is a Mediterranean cuisine consisting of the ingredients, recipes and cooking techniques developed in Italy since Roman times and later spread around the world together with waves of Italian diaspora. Some of these foods were imported from other cultures. Significant changes occurred with the colonization of the Americas and the introduction of potatoes, tomatoes, capsicums, maize and sugar beet—the latter introduced in quantity in the 18th century. It is one of the best-known and most appreciated gastronomies worldwide.
Clockwise from top left; some of the most popular Italian foods: Neapolitan pizza, carbonara, espresso, and gelato
A Roman mosaic depicting a banquet during a hunting trip, from the Late Roman Villa Romana del Casale, Sicily
A restored medieval kitchen inside Verrucole Castle, Tuscany
Saffron has been used in Italy for centuries.
Mediterranean cuisine is the food and methods of preparation used by the people of the Mediterranean Basin. The idea of a Mediterranean cuisine originates with the cookery writer Elizabeth David's book, A Book of Mediterranean Food (1950) and was amplified by other writers working in English.
Bread, wine, and fruit: The Lunch by Diego Velázquez, c. 1617
"Those blessed lands of sun and sea and olive trees": a landscape in Rhodes, in the Eastern Mediterranean
Olive (Olea europaea)
Wheat (Triticum)