So I’m back from my trip to Italy, and right back into my blog! I actually missed writing it while I was away, as it’s become such a big part of my week each week, and something I really enjoy doing. Although I didn’t miss it enough to stop enjoying myself in Italy to write a post, but I promise to make up for it now with brand new recipes and foodie stories from my time abroad!

Italy was beyond amazing, honestly if only I wasn’t so pale, I would think I was born to live the Italian life! I loved every minute of exploring the amazing towns and regions on our 3 and a half week break, and if I could go back there today and continue exploring I would, but unfortunately it is back to reality for me. Probably just as well, as with the amount of food I ate I need to get back into eating normally and not having pasta for every meal (seriously, it was actually a bit ridiculous, but in a good way, like a ‘if only I could eat whatever I wanted forever’ way).

The food in Italy was beyond amazing, and I think I will dream about it for months to come. Whether it was a simple pasta dish, or a beautiful wine, everything was to die for, and there were only a handful of meals that I didn’t fall in love with. Pretty good track record if you ask me. I also didn’t get sick of the food, even after 3.5 weeks, so that shows how good it was. I think I could easily eat Italian food for the rest of my life and not get sick of it. There are so many different flavours, types of food, and ways of cooking that makes it so diverse. There is so much to fall in love with, and this is probably the reason I need to hit the gym to get my clothes fitting better!

So I wanted to share with you, mainly because I’m deep in travel depression, some of my favourite things I ate while I was over in Italy. There were so many tasty things, and I do want to share some of the best restaurants we went to in another post. But this post I just wanted to think back and reminisce on some of the best things I ate, so perhaps if you’re planning a trip you can look out for these in the area you are going. It will also help me to get over my trip being over, just a little bit, if not also make me very hungry!

Aperitivo and Aperol (or Lemon) Spritz

One of the things I’m really going to miss in Italy was aperitivo. It is this magical time prior to dinner where you basically order drinks and get free food. No joke, this is a thing. Sometimes you’ll just get some peanuts, chips or olives, sometimes you’ll get a spread of all of these. But sometimes you’ll get access to a glorious buffet of delicious snacks for only the cost of your drink. Honestly, you almost don’t need to eat dinner (but you still should because Italy).

We had many apertivos throughout our time in Italy, and each time I was delighted by the abundance of snacks you got with it. One time we even got chips with a bowl of truffle paste to put on them – talk about fancy! There were also many olives consumed, as well as delicious bready snacks.

The best part about aperitivo though was the Spritz. You can drink anything at aperitivo, but my drink of choice was Aperol Spritz of course. These are everywhere in Italy, and much stronger than they make them in Australia. They are also, for the most part, dirt cheap! We got most of our Spritz for about 5 euros, but we saw some for as little as 3!

Another great drink which we only found in Cinque Terra was lemon spritz. This is like Aperol Spritz but made with limoncello instead, so is a bit punchier but equally delicious. I wish these had been more widespread, as I got addicted to them while we were there and didn’t see them again. So if you head to Cinque Terra make sure you look out for these, they are the perfect way to cool down after a long hike!

It was the perfect way to round off an afternoon of exploring and unwind with a couple of drinks before dinner. Most nights we would treat ourselves to a nice Aperol and some delicious snacks, as well as some great people watching. After all, when in Italy right?

Rustici in Puglia

One thing that we really enjoyed when we were in Italy was a specialty of the Puglia region. Now I do have to say, there is a lot of talk about Puglia being the new Tuscany and having the best food, well I am here to tell you that that was not my experience. Tuscany was by far my favourite place for food, and Puglia was probably where I had my least favourite meals. Probably if we had been staying a little more North there would have been better food, but as we were below Lecce I didn’t find the amazing food I was looking for. It is probably my own fault as I don’t eat a lot of seafood and this is their specialty, so don’t let this dishearten you if you are looking to travel there. And the scenery and beaches 1000% make up for it, the beaches there were the most incredible ones that I have ever seen. Lecce was also an amazing city that is definitely worth a visit!

Another thing that I was absolutely obsessed with in Puglia was a pastry called Rustici. I seriously had these just about every day I was there after I figured out how amazing they were, and this is probably why my partner and I came back with big food babies. But we couldn’t help it, these things were delicious! They were the perfect thing when you needed a snack, either before lunch or before dinner, and we loved trying the different ones we found and comparing them.

Rustici is sort of like a round croissant with flakey pastry. In the middle is a glorious centre filled to the brim with béchamel sauce, mozzarella and tomato. It sounds so simple, but man it was delicious! You had to make sure that you got one that was hot (we did have a cold one which was average) because the béchamel sauce oozes out the middle and makes the mozzarella all gooey and delicious!

You can find these everywhere in Puglia, they even have dedicated Rosticerrias in each town! Make sure you give these a go when you are in Puglia, honestly they were the bomb, and one of my favourite things I ate in the region (which is a big call as they also have delicious sweet cakes called Pasticciotto – but I definitely preferred Rostici which is a big call!).

All of the pasta

No trip to Italy is complete without a lot of pasta, and eat a lot of pasta I did. I don’t think one day went by where I didn’t have some sort of pasta, because it is just so damn delicious! There are so many different varieties and flavours to try, I never got bored! Pasta is traditionally served as a course before a meat course at dinner, but we found there was only one restaurant that served a size too small to eat on its own. Everywhere else we ordered the Primi and were given a huge plate of pasta full of delicious flavours!

There were so many good meals, it was too hard for me to pick out one. The pasta is always so fresh, and the ingredients perfectly balanced with simple flavours. It inspired me to cook pasta myself, as now I want to eat pasta all the time! We even did a cooking class to learn how to make it, so I am ready to go (one I get a pasta maker of course).

One of my favourite types of pasta I had was in Cinque Terra – the Trofie al Pesto. The region is known for its pesto, and the pesto pastas that I had were the best I’ve ever eaten! I don’t know what they did to make the pesto so creamy and delicious, but for what I thought was traditionally a really simple and basic pasta, it was one of the tastiest types I tried over there.

The other type of pasta I couldn’t go past was truffle. It’s amazing how freely truffle flows in Italy, I get the feeling it is a lot cheaper there than it is in Australia. I had one pasta dish that was so covered in truffle, it looked like it had minced meat on the top! I also had a truffle pasta with hare tortellini. I’d never tried hare before, and even though I only got 5 pieces of it, it was definitely one of my favourite pastas!

Another favourite pasta moment was in Tuscany where I tried an interesting combination – ham and lemon. I didn’t think this would really work, but boy was I wrong! I really need to try and replicate this delicious dish, because it was definitely a highlight of my foodie trip around Italy.

Finally, in Tuscany they do a pork ragu with a white sauce, which means that they don’t make it with tomato. I was a bit worried it would be creamy, but instead it is a beautiful ragu where the flavours of the pork really shine through. I tried this in a few places and was never disappointed. If you do love tomato sauces though, the wild boar ragu in Tuscany is out of control good!

I could seriously go on and on about pasta, it is honestly so much better in Italy. I enjoyed trying all the different pastas of the regions and being constantly surprised by how amazing the dishes were. I think this is the thing I’m going to miss the most from my holiday! Food wise anyway.

Gelato

What is a trip to Italy without gelato? I think there were only a handful of days that I didn’t have gelato at least once, I may or may not have had 3 gelatos on my last day because I was going to miss it so much, and my partner and I got a sneaky one at the airport when coming back from Rome!

The gelato in Italy is out of this world good. I don’t think we even had one average one, let alone bad! They have great flavours too, from classics like strawberry, hazelnut, stracciatella and pistachio, to one of the weirdest but good flavours I had of lavender and white peach! The gelato was seriously good, and awesome after lunch, after dinner, or any time it got a little too hot!

I think I settled on my favourite flavours across the board, with the help of a lot of market research done by yours truly. I always went for a Nutella or Bacio flavour, as they were always so delicious! Nutella is everywhere in Italy, so you may as well join them right! I loved the peach flavours as well which were so prominent in the summer time. The best one I had was a granita so I felt like it wasn’t even bad for me! These are also particularly good, but you can’t really mix them with gelato as they are made on ice, so you have to make a tough decision on what you prefer!

You really can’t go to Italy without trying the gelato, and it is seriously everywhere. I think it’s good to check for those gelato shops that seem to have a pretty big crowd, or check TripAdvisor, as there will always be great recommendations on there! But we got some real gems by just walking into stores that looked good. The best thing of all was that they were so cheap for the most part. Compared to Australia where you pay upwards of $4.50 for ice cream or gelato, these were only 2 euro for a small cup and they absolutely piled the gelato up. It was a delicious way to end a meal, especially if you were walking around in the heat and didn’t feel like you could fit in a tiramisu after consuming your body weight in pasta.

Cured Meats

The last thing I wanted to mention was the cured meats. I loved in Italy that on basically every menu you could get your hands on a delicious platter of cured meats. The Italians do these so well, and there are so many different flavours to try! We had a lot on our food tours and I loved trying all the different salamis (who would have thought you could have liver salami…not really my thing but hey!) and prosciuttos that were on offer. They also didn’t really serve them on a cheese board with crackers like we do in Australia, favouring just a plate of pure meat to start off the meal. It was fine by me!

The great thing about how good the cured meats were was that you could have some delicious sandwhiches for lunch. Normally I would not be one for having a sandwhich for lunch on holidays, but the Italian panini is next level good. They use the most simple ingredients and turn them into something incredible. Whether it was braesola with rocket and parmesan, or prosciutto with mozzarella, I really didn’t have one panini that I didn’t enjoy. They were so good, but only because the ingredients they used were so fresh and such good quality. Another favourite dish of mine was prosciutto and melon, which again is simple flavours that are so delicious when you use fresh ingredients.

You’d pay an arm and a leg in Australia for the cured meats that you get for a steal in Italy, especially for the quality and selection you get. I really haven’t had anything like it, the flavours were just so good. You really can’t go past it, so make sure you look out for what seems like a simple entrée or lunch. Not only will you be pleasantly surprised by the cost, I can guarantee you’ll be in for a treat!

So there you have it, my top 5 from Italy. I know I didn’t go into specifics, but I’ll save this for later where I share some of my favourite places that I ate. It was truly an incredible trip, and I’ve made myself equally sad and hungry writing this blog post. The food in Italy is some of the best I’ve ever eaten, and I cannot wait to get back over there and try it once more!

Until next time, happy eating!

Ella xx