Carl Hanson is a Senior Editor at Allrecipes who has been writing about food and wine for nearly 20 years. He enjoys creating content that informs, entertains, and assists busy home cooks get nourishing meals on the table for their families.
I do a lot of myth-busting about vegan Italian food here at the Nomadic Vegan. In addition to leading vegan Italy group tours, I've also written quite a few articles about vegan food in different parts of Italy, as well as lesser-known vegan dishes that are part of Italian cuisine.
Italian Meals
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It's incredibly easy for travelers to Italy to eat vegan. Not just because of the growing number of vegan restaurants in the country, but because there are so many delicious vegan options that are part of traditional Italian cuisine.
The authentic Italian food that you'll find in Italy is quite different from the exported version that's served in Italian restaurants in other countries. The foundation of real Italian cuisine is cucina povera -- the food of the poor.
Italian cuisine varies quite a lot from region to region, so it's hard to generalize. But you will find, especially in the poorer regions in the south, that animal products are used sparingly, if at all, in many traditional dishes.
The good news for vegans (and also for pigs and chickens) is that Italians never, and I mean never, eat bacon or eggs for breakfast. In fact, they are pretty disgusted by the thought of eating anything savory that early in the morning.
For most Italians, the most essential component of breakfast is coffee. This could be in the form of a shot of espresso, a caff latte, or a cappuccino. It's worth noting that this is basically the only time of day when Italians will drink a cappuccino; after 11 a.m. it becomes socially unacceptable.
At home, most Italians will have cookies with their coffee. But if they eat out, then they will go to a bar, which is more like what we would think of as a caf. At the bar, they will usually get a kind of pastry.
In southern and central Italy these are known as cornetti, whereas in the north they are called brioche. Don't confuse them with the sweet bread rolls sold in France though. Italian brioche are more like croissants, but again, not a French croissant. This is an Italian croissant, which has a different texture and is not as flaky or buttery as the ones sold in France.
On my last few trips to Italy, I've been pleasantly surprised to see that more and more bars are offering cornetti vegani (vegan croissants), even in smaller cities and towns. It's also pretty easy to find coffee drinks made with soy milk (latte di soia).
The original pizza, invented in Naples in the 18th century, is the pizza marinara. It's topped with tomato sauce, garlic and dried oregano, and maybe a few basil leaves. No cheese! And no other animal products either. The original pizza is 100% vegan, and it's still one of the most popular types of pizza in Italy.
As for the dough, the traditional recipe calls for just four ingredients: flour, water, salt and yeast. There are some chefs who add milk, eggs or even lard to their pizza dough, but this is not the norm.
A true Italian pizza base should be vegan, and any restaurant certified by L'Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana (The True Neapolitan Pizza Association) must use only flour, water, salt and yeast in their pizza bases.
The pizza is sold by weight, so your slice can be as big or as small as you like. The fact that the pizzas are pre-made at a pizzeria al taglio means that it's not possible to order whichever one you want without cheese.
Nevertheless, it's highly likely that there will be at least one cheeseless option already there waiting for you. Two of the most common offerings in a pizzeria al taglio are pizza rossa and pizza bianca.
The first is basically a takeaway version of a pizza marinara and comes with just tomato sauce and perhaps some dried oregano or other herbs. Pizza bianca, on the other hand, is a basic pizza crust topped with nothing but olive oil, rosemary and garlic.
To make a sweeping generalization, we could say that dried pasta (pasta secca) is vegan, while fresh pasta (pasta fresca) contains eggs. But this does not always hold true. In southern regions like Puglia, even the fresh pasta is almost always made without eggs.
The secret to making creamy risotto is to use a good stock (make sure the chef uses vegetable stock rather than a meat stock) and to cook it at a gentle simmer, stirring constantly to make sure the rice absorbs the liquid evenly and doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan.
Polenta was once the staple diet of rural Italian families throughout central and northern Italy, from Emilia Romagna all the way up to the border with Switzerland. This is the northern version of cucina povera.
Once cooked, it can be eaten right away as a thick, doughy porridge that serves as a starchy base for a meal, in place of rice, bread or potatoes. Alternatively, it can be poured into a shallow pan and left to cool and set. The polenta is then cut into slabs and either served as is or grilled or fried to add extra flavor.
The basic recipe for polenta is vegan; all that's required is cornmeal, water and a bit of salt and olive oil. Some chefs do add butter, though, or occasionally even milk or meat broth in place of the water, so be sure to ask.
When traveling in Italy, it's important to know that an Italian menu is always divided into courses. Typically, the antipasti (starters) come first, followed by the primi piatti (first dishes), the secondi piatti (second dishes), and finally the dolci (desserts).
Despite the word "cream" in the name, these usually don't contain any cream, though some cooks will add cheese to the recipe. In the case of crema di olive, the non-vegan ingredient to watch out for is anchovies.
A type of bread, similar to an Italian pizza base, which is made in many different ways throughout Italy. It can be thick or thin, depending on the region. One of the most common toppings is sea salt and rosemary.
It's hard to translate because in English-speaking countries we don't divide our meals into courses the way Italians do. In the UK or the US, a typical meal would consist of a slab of meat, a vegetable side dish, and some rice, potatoes or pasta as an accompaniment. In Italy, however, those would be three different dishes, and they would all be ordered separately.
A hearty soup made with a small pasta shape, such as ditalini, and chickpeas in a thick broth of tomatoes, onions, celery and carrots. The base of the soup is normally either vegetable broth or the cooking water that the chickpeas were boiled in.
The wonderfully thick stew known as pasta e fagioli is one of the most popular traditional dishes in all of Italian cuisine and can be found in various versions all along the peninsula. The sauce is typically made with beans, celery, tomatoes, parsley, oregano, garlic and crushed red peppers. Depending on the region, some cooks may add animal products, so be sure to ask.
This spicy pasta dish is usually made with penne pasta, but you might also see the same sauce served with spaghetti. In any case, both of these pasta shapes are dried pasta and are normally made without eggs.
The word "arrabbiata" translates as "angry" and refers to the fiery kick to the sauce, which is made with tomatoes, garlic, chili pepper, and parsley. Penne all'arrabbiata is sometimes eaten with grated Pecorino cheese, so you might want to say "senza formaggio" (without cheese) when you place your order.
This is one of many very simple dishes in Italian cuisine that rely on fresh, high-quality ingredients to really make the flavors pop. It consists of nothing more than spaghetti tossed with small red chili peppers and garlic that has been lightly sauted in olive oil.
This dish originated in the city of Catania in Sicily and is supposedly named after the opera Norma, written by Catania-born composer Vincenzo Bellini. The sauce is a simple combination of tomato and basil, with the addition of chunks of eggplant.
We're not going to spend much time looking at this section of the menu because, to be honest, there's not much here that's of interest to us. Remember the slab of meat that was the main focus of our combined plate in an American or British restaurant? Yeah, well, that's the secondo in an Italian meal.
I usually just skip over this section of the menu entirely without even glancing at it. The one exception to this is if I'm in a vegetarian or vegan restaurant, or a restaurant that I know is making an intentional effort to cater to customers looking for vegan options.
On the contrary, it's quite common to order only a primo or only a secondo, especially at dinner. Lunch is the main meal of the day in Italy and is more likely to be composed of multiple courses. But even then, anything goes. You're not going to be given any strange looks if you just stick to the antipasti and the primi. Oh, and let's not forget the contorni!
The disadvantage of this is that you will have to pay extra for them, but the advantage is that you get to order the one you really want. And if you can't decide, you can order several and make a whole meal out of contorni!
You are pretty much guaranteed to find some veggie dishes in this section of the menu. If you're health conscious and want to make sure you get enough dark leafy greens in your diet, you'll be happy to know that greens are highly appreciated in Italy and are one of the most common types of side dishes served.
These may be served with simply a dash of salt and olive oil, or they may come in a more elaborate dressing, like a mix of garlic, olive oil and spicy red pepper, or raisins, pine nuts, olives and capers.
This popular dish is a kind of vegetable stew in a sweet and sour sauce flavored with sweetened vinegar. Eggplant always features prominently, and there are usually some capers thrown into the mix, but the rest of the ingredients can vary. 152ee80cbc
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